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Summary and Analysis of Invisible Man
By Ralph Ellison OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA
Copyright © 2017 Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5040-4372-4
CHAPTER 1
Summary
Prologue
The narrator introduces himself as an invisible man — self-described as such because others "refuse" to see him. His invisibility can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. It is an asset in that he can get away with things, like a revenge attack on a white man who insults him. Newspapers later report the incident as a mugging by an unidentified man. The narrator also steals electricity from the power company, which he uses to illuminate his underground lair with more than 1,000 light bulbs, and to power his record player so he can listen to Louis Armstrong jazz records.
The disadvantage is that he is not recognized as a human being — a member of society with moral standing and the ability to contribute. He is black, and blackness means invisibility. The narrator has visions that anguish him because he is reminded of his situation.
Chapter One
The narrator reminisces about his grandparents, who were former slaves. They had long believed that, with the end of the Civil War, they were equal to whites, even if they were segregated.
As a boy and a young man, the narrator was invisible to himself, but did not know it yet. He was felt this way because he didn't know who he was or who he could be. He thought that he should follow in his grandparents' footsteps, working hard and doing the right thing — and for that, he would be rewarded.
The narrator recalls that, at first, this seemed to be a good idea. Indeed, so good was it that he ignored his grandfather's deathbed retraction of his former beliefs. His grandfather accused himself of being a traitor to his race and admonished his grandson not to do the same. Instead, the narrator believes he is doing well since he is asked to speak at his high school graduation, in which he emphasizes the virtue of humility and submission. Better still, a white man hears it and invites him to give the same speech at a gathering of white community leaders; for this he receives a college scholarship.
When the narrator arrives to give his speech, however, he is told he will receive his scholarship after participating in a "battle royal," a fight against other black boys. The sting of the humiliation is intensified when they rush to pick up coins and bills strewn on a carpet that, they learn, is electrified.
Finally allowed to deliver his speech, the narrator is alternately ignored and berated by the drunken and boisterous white crowd. Eventually, he is given a calfskin briefcase containing his scholarship. That night, the narrator dreams he is at a circus with his grandfather, who orders him to open the envelope in the briefcase. "To Whom It May Concern," the message reads. "Keep This Nigger-Boy Running."
Need to Know: As a young man, carrying the "baggage" of all the black people in America who came before him, the narrator does not know who he is or how he should be. He accepts what looks like the path of least resistance to success, extolling some virtues that should apply equally to all people. He does not realize, however, that there are two worlds — white and black — with different rules and rights for each.
Chapter Two
The narrator is now a student at the black college to which he received a scholarship. Still believing in the possibility of earning approval from whites, he eagerly accepts the assignment to chauffer a visiting white trustee, Mr. Norton.
The narrator takes Mr. Norton to the outskirts of campus where there are old slave quarters. Mr. Norton orders the narrator to stop so he can talk to a sharecropper, Jim Trueblood. The man's story utterly fascinates Mr. Norton. Jim recounts having had a bizarre dream and then waking up to find himself having sex with his own daughter, who is now pregnant.
Mr. Norton gives Jim a hundred-dollar bill and leaves. Flushed from the encounter, Mr. Norton tells the narrator he needs some whiskey to calm his nerves.
Need to Know: The narrator, horrified at Jim's conduct, thinks Jim is undermining the advancement of the black race. The right way to progress, the narrator believes, is through obeisance and morally upright conduct. The chapter prompts us to consider: What makes an action moral or immoral? What does it say about our moral sensibilities that we can be both repulsed by Jim's conduct and also repulsed by Mr. Norton's response to Jim's story?
Chapter Three
The narrator thinks it's too far to take the man to a whites-only bar, and believing his need for a drink is urgent — he fears Mr. Norton might die from shock — he drives to the Golden Day, a local black bar and brothel. When they arrive, they run into a group of black veterans, shell-shocked from the war and who have been institutionalized. The men are out for an afternoon away from the hospital, and their attendant is nowhere in sight.
The narrator plans to run inside to get Mr. Norton a drink, but the proprietor refuses take-out service. Some of the veterans help bring Mr. Norton inside, where, after some brandy is poured into his mouth, he regains consciousness. He is then propositioned by a prostitute and accosted by a veteran, and generally overwhelmed by the unstable people around him. At that point, the attendant yells down from the upstairs brothel, clad only in his undershorts. A brawl breaks out, the attendant is beaten, and one of the veterans carries Mr. Norton, unconscious once again, upstairs to a prostitute's room.
The veteran, who says he is a doctor and a graduate of the college the narrator attends, rebukes Mr. Norton and the narrator. He accuses Mr. Norton of using the narrator as "a mark on the scorecard ... a thing and not a man; a child, or even less — a black amorphous thing." The narrator is equally repugnant in the vet's eyes, who he views as a mere automaton blindly idolizing the white man. Mr. Norton becomes angry and demands the narrator bring him back to campus.
Need to Know: On one hand, Mr. Norton sees it as his destiny to improve the lives of blacks, but the reality is considerably different. Life is messy; it's hard for him — and the narrator, for that matter — to hear black people express their true feelings. These do not comport with the version of normality they expect to see. The pastoral serenity of college life is not real; it does not address the real problems faced by black people, in particular, problems created by whites.
Chapter Four
The narrator drops Mr. Norton off in his room, and then goes to the administration building to report back. Dr. Bledsoe, the college president, becomes enraged when he learns of the day's events. His veneer of civility and servility toward whites melts away, only to be reassembled in preparation for meeting Mr. Norton. Mr. Bledsoe tells the narrator to attend chapel services that evening, and that he will meet him at another time to discuss the consequences.
Later, the narrator goes to Mr. Norton's room to apologize and to offer to drive him to the station, but he is refused. After Mr. Norton tells the narrator that he is not responsible for the day's events, and that Dr. Bledsoe will understand, the narrator promises Mr. Norton that he plans to read Ralph Waldo Emerson. This seems to assuage the trustee somewhat. Mr. Norton comments on the importance of self-reliance.
Need to Know: Dr. Bledsoe reveals the masks worn in front of white people and in private. For the narrator, this is bewildering. "We take these white folks where we want them to go," Dr. Bledsoe tells the narrator, continuing, "we show them what we want them to see." It is an echo, of sorts, of the narrator's grandfather's deathbed confession.
Chapter Five
The Reverend Homer A. Barbee speaks at the chapel service, telling the story of the college's founder. This moves the narrator, who feels shame at his own conduct, but also a renewed commitment to his values. When the reverend leaves the stage, the dark glasses he wears fall from his face, revealing his blindness.
Need to Know: The reverend's literal and figurative blind devotion to the founder's ideals sharply contrasts with Dr. Bledsoe's cynical and superficial dedication. At the same time, however, the reverend's commitment reveals an inability to see the truth of the circumstances in which blacks are forced to live, where illusions are represented as real and lies are presented as promises.
Chapter Six
After the service, the narrator meets with Dr. Bledsoe, who chastises him for not dealing properly with Mr. Norton. Dr. Bledsoe then tells the narrator that he must be disciplined and that he must go to New York City for the summer to work for his tuition, and that doing so will earn him the right to return to school.
The next day, the narrator receives seven letters of recommendation addressed to college trustees in order to help him find work in the city. Stunned at the events that led up to his presumably temporary expulsion, the narrator puts the letters in his briefcase and leaves.
Need to Know: Dr. Bledsoe shows his true nature by upholding the concept of white supremacy in order to preserve his own position and power.
Chapter Seven
The narrator meets an angry military veteran from the Golden Day bar on the near-empty bus to New York. Here he needs to sit in the back section, as was policy at the time. He tells the narrator that he suspects Dr. Bledsoe arranged for his transfer to a Washington, DC, psychiatric facility at Mr. Norton's behest, but the narrator doesn't believe it. Before the narrator switches to another bus to complete his journey north, the veteran cautions the narrator to look under the surface of things and to hide away from the powers that be, namely whites. He tells the narrator to "play the game, but don't believe in it."
When the narrator arrives in New York he is astonished to see a black traffic officer directing white drivers. He also sees people gathered around a West Indian man, Ras the Exhorter, who gives an angry speech about whites — and is not arrested. Here is a place where the narrator believes he can transcend his Southern backward roots.
Need to Know: The veteran's advice is particularly powerful when we consider the narrator's initial reaction to what he sees happening in New York.
Chapter Eight
The narrator begins looking for work, delivering all but one of his letters of recommendation. When he doesn't receive word back from any of the recipients, he begins calling, but to no avail. His money is running out.
Need to Know: This is part of the transition to the narrator's new awakening. The literal transition, from South to North, is followed by an impending realization about Dr. Bledsoe, whom he trusted as the embodiment of the college's values.
Chapter Nine
The narrator changes tactics, and sends a request for an appointment, rather than a letter, to the last trustee, Mr. Emerson. Ambitious and optimistic, he arrives at the last trustee's office and is greeted by a blond-haired executive who greets him: Mr. Emerson's son.
Dr. Bledsoe did not, it turns out, write letters of recommendation, but instead wrote to warn the trustees that the narrator has been expelled. Encouraged to read the letter himself, the narrator learns that Dr. Bledsoe lied to him in order to protect the college, and encourages the recipient of the letter to let the narrator continue believing that he has a hope of returning to school.
The young Emerson tells the stunned narrator that the elder Emerson is strict and won't help, but that he will. The young Emerson offers the narrator a job at the Liberty Paints company. Angry and vengeful, the narrator leaves.
Need to Know: The narrator begins to see the extent of the power structure into which he was born, and which he has bought into, thinking he'd be rewarded for being a just man.
Chapter Ten
The narrator arrives at the paint factory to find a sign that reads "Keep America Pure with Liberty Paints." His job there is to make white paint by adding ten drops of black chemical into a "milky brown" liquid. After this, he paints wooden boards, waits for them to dry, then looks to see if the result is a brilliant white. Unfortunately, when his supply of black chemicals runs out, he cannot determine which of the tanks in the supply room contain the right color. The result is that he ruins a considerable number of buckets of paint.
The narrator is then sent down to the furnace room to assist the engineer, and is met with suspicion. The engineer worries the college-educated boy will take his job. During his lunch break, the narrator accidentally interrupts a union meeting, and is accused of being an informer for the engineer.
When the narrator returns to the furnace room, he gets into a fight with the engineer. Meanwhile, the pressure on a boiler increases, and before the valve can be turned to release it, the boiler explodes.
Need to Know: Liberty Paints' bestselling product is Optic White, "so white you can paint a chunka coal and you'd have to crack it open with a sledge hammer to prove it wasn't white clear through." Combined with the electric sign at the entrance, it is not hard to see the problem: Blackness is not accepted in a white world, and the North is no better than the South.
Chapter Eleven
Upon awakening from being knocked unconscious by the blast, the narrator finds himself sitting on a white chair, dressed in white in the paint factory's hospital. There, he is subjected to electric-shock experiments and overhears discussion of a "prefrontal lobotomy" and "castration." While some of the doctors argue that they should not conduct the experiment since the results wouldn't necessarily be the same as for someone who has a Harvard education, the shocks continue.
The narrator is presented with a series of questions by a man dressed in black. When he cannot answer the basic facts about himself — his name, his mother's name — he realizes that he has lost his identity.
Eventually, he is released from the hospital and advised to find an easier job. Back out on the street, he heads to a subway station and makes his way underground.
Need to Know: The narrator emerges from his harrowing experience as if he is reborn.
Chapter Twelve
Still woozy from the accident and his stay at the hospital, the narrator exits the subway in Harlem and collapses on Lenox Avenue. Several people help carry him to the home of a kindly black woman, Mary Rambo. She offers him a place to stay, but he returns to the Men's House where he'd been living.
After mistaking a prominent Baptist preacher for Dr. Bledsoe, and emptying a spittoon over his head, the narrator is banned from the rooming house. He returns to Mary, who encourages him to engage in activism. Initially annoyed at her insistence, he begins to think that it is a good idea.
Need to Know: The break with the Men's House, and the move to Mary's house, marks another transition in the narrator's life, this time to a realization that economic opportunities will result in freedom. In Mary, the narrator also finds a mother figure to nurture his growth after the hospital rebirth.
Chapter Thirteen
Happy in his newfound world, the narrator buys a hot-buttered yam from a street vendor and revels in its sweetness — and nostalgia for the southern delicacy.
He then comes upon a troubling scene: An elderly couple is being evicted from their apartment. He feels a pang of pain when he looks at their meager possessions being brought out to the street by two white men, everything they had acquired from a lifetime of work. He then notices a ratty paper that had fallen in the snow. They are the elderly man's "freedom papers."
The woman, who had earlier lambasted the men for turning her and her husband out, attempts to go back into her home to pray, but is prevented by one of the white men. The crowd, which had gathered to watch, becomes upset.
Heartbroken, and fearing that the violence could escalate, the narrator makes an impassioned speech to the onlookers, including the white men. People begin returning the furniture, but when the police arrive, the narrator flees.
Someone in the crowd had heard the narrator, and followed him as he fled. A white man, Brother Jack, offers the narrator a job as a spokesman for the Harlem branch of a political organization. The narrator refuses, but Brother Jack gives him a phone number to call if he changes his mind.
Need to Know: The narrator both embraces his southern heritage, which is a new feeling for him, and finds that he has a voice for the dispossessed.
Chapter Fourteen
Almost as soon as he returns to Mary's place, the narrator changes his mind. Overwhelmed by the scent of cabbage, which Mary prepares for him daily, the narrator is reminded of his childhood and his newfound social responsibility. He calls Brother Jack.
The narrator is introduced to members of the organization, which Jack informs him is called the Brotherhood. He is also introduced to Jack's wife, who worries that he is not black enough.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Summary and Analysis of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Copyright © 2017 Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
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