The Narrator and the Brotherhood

In the first few chapters of Invisible Man, I wasn't totally fond of the narrator because I didn't like how he was constantly being manipulated and berated for things that weren't even his fault and he never really stood up for himself. The intense conversation between the narrator and Dr. Bledsoe in his office before the narrator gets sent to New York was the first time that I began to see another side of the narrator - a side where the narrator actually stood up for himself. However, that was very short lived because he soon got tricked again by Dr. Bledsoe with the letters in the briefcase. When the narrator first arrived in Harlem, it seemed like it would have been the place where the narrator started to realize things regarding his identity and invisibiliy because of how vibrant the setting and the people in it were described.

The beginning of the narrator's understanding of invisibility is when Young Emerson reveals Dr. Bledsoe's treachery to him. While I was somewhat dubious of Young Emerson when we were first introduced to him, he proved himself to be faithful by getting the narrator a job at Liberty Paints. I felt that this was a turning point in the narrator's character development because he went from admiring Bledsoe and wanting to be his assistant to wanting to enact revenge and murder him instead. Personally, I was fascinated by this sudden change in the narrator's mindset because it was interesting to see how one simple revelation could change someone's entire future. (I also wasn't a big fan of Dr. Bledsoe after learning what the content of the seven letters was so reading how the narrator wanted to murder him was somewhat refreshing).

Flash forward a few chapters and the narrator is now leaving Harlem and joining the Brotherhood. I like how while the general focus of the novel so far has been on the racial dynamics between whites and blacks, the Brotherhood talks about how their goal is helping minorities in society, including women. The Brotherhood also focuses on the intersectionality of racism and sexism, which I feel like is a very important topic that hasn't been represented in the novels we've read so far because both Bigger and the narrator are men.

While I think the kinship between the narrator and the Brotherhood is indisputably great, I do worry that the Brotherhood might distract him from his ultimate goal of getting revenge on Dr. Bledsoe. I even slightly wonder if the narrator is wrong not to have any paranoia about them since we don't actually know that much about them yet. That said, I think the Brotherhood might be the key factor in the narrator learning the whole truth of his identity and coming to terms with his invisibility. Emerson got the ball rolling in the narrator's discovery of invisibility and what it means for someone like him to be "invisible" and I think the Brotherhood will help the narrator understand how his invisibility can actually be beneficial to him. It seems like the Brotherhood understands their role in society and knows how to use it to their advantage, which is what the narrator in the prologue was like. My hope is that the narrator will be able to achieve his goal of getting back at Bledsoe (possibly with the help of the Brotherhood) while simultaneously learning what it means to be invisible in society and coming to terms with the realization that it can actually be a good thing.