Invisible Man - Invisibility Motif
...ks are considered invisible is during his quick employment at the paint factory. Above ground people mix the paint into their desirable color, but yet below is where the basic ingredients are grinded up and processed to be able to make paint even possible. After working on the mixing process above ground, the narrator works below ground, with a black man who has been running the operation for years. Through the process of having black employees working underground, they create the most important part of the paint process, but are never actually seen to anyone else. This creates the false view that all the paint work is nondependent on black men, giving more of a foundation for the belief in white supremacy. This also relates to a motto the company uses to help sell their products. “White is Right” is a slogan selected for the company due to the popularity of that particular color, but also represents symbolically to the belief that people have who view the narrator as invisible. This gives more founding support to the narrator on his view of inner eyes and how they view reality, and such symbolic quotes cause further “blindness.” Later in the story the narrator meets a woman after he gives a speech about women’s rights. She informs him that there are some things she would like to talk to him about and the two go to her apartment. The narrator goes there assuming she will want to discuss his speech, but to his disappointment she seduces him. The woman also represents a level of invisibility as she is married to a man that does not give her attention and creates repressed desires that she has nobody to fulfill with. Yet because of her degree of invisibility, like the narrator, has been given no name. Throughout the narrators early days of joining the Brotherhood, Brother Jack is a reliable character that the narrator can get information from and receive guidance that he feels he can trust. But after being accused of being an individualist the Brotherhood removes him from his most effective position to relocate him on a entirely new issue. This creates doubts in the narrators mind of the integrity of the leaders and soon shows Jacks true colors. In a heated meeting, Jacks glass eye falls out and lands into a glass. The narrator finally realizes Jack’s blindness, that through his recruitment process and teachings, he has only been used as a token black man, and is only working for what is best for the white leaders. Once the narrator started getting interviews, and becoming “visible” to the community, the leaders quickly prevented any further occurrences from happening and relocated him to an area where he is less needed. Later in the novel when the narrator is lighting his papers on fire, he noticed that an anonymous threatening letter and the narrator’s new identity written by Jack are the same exact handwriting, proving that Jack did what it would take to prevent him from getting too comfortable and secure. Even with a leader the narrator felt he could trust, he has just been a puppet through all his efforts, and the narrators true abilities and characteristics are ignored by Jack’s blindness. Cybil is a lonely woman who the narrator meets after going to a party. After figuring out that he is still invisible to the Brotherhood leaders, he will take some of his grandfathers advice, that he will “overcome them with yeses, undermine them with grins, I’d agree them to death and destruction” complying with ...