Rinehart and the Beginning of Invisibility

In class, we have often talked about how the narrator is unable to make his own decisions, and is being “kept running” by society. These points were all important and valid up until the narrator’s scene pretending to be Rinheart in which he forges his own world and finds his invisibility. I feel that this is a crucial scene in the story, as it marks a major shift in how the narrator makes his decision. Up until this scene, the narrator finds himself a pawn in a cruel game and by taking control of Rinheart’s identity, he plays his own game.

Leading up to the narrator’s encounter with invisibility and Rinehart, he was never truly in charge of his actions. Starting all the way back to his time in the arena and his speech, when he is mocked and given a scholarship to “keep this boy running”. There is the game with Bledsoe and the fake letters of recommendation, and then the narrator joins the brotherhood.

When we were first introduced to the brotherhood, I felt like it may be a good turn, but as the narrator gains power in the organization we see more of the bad side. We know that he is only really given the job because of his race, and that he is being controlled just like dolls being sold by Clifton. We can see that for much of the narrator’s life he has constantly been part of a game played by society on him, and the scene when he becomes Rinheart is the turning point when he gains some agency.

The reason the narrator initially pretends to be Rinehart stems from the fear that Ras the Exhorter would hurt him. In response to the threat of Ras’ angry followers, the narrator buys dark glasses from the store. Starting only as a disguise, the narrator is mistaken for Rinehart for the first time when trying to get a cab. This first interaction is crucial because the narrator realizes that he can control the way people see him. The narrator realizes the potential, saying “With this [the hat], I thought, I should be seen even in a snowstorm – only they’d think I was someone else” (484).

With this realization, the game is on, and this time the narrator is playing it. He begins to walk around, testing his disguise and his invisibility. He begins by walking straight through Ras the Destroyer’s rally, and he “trembled with excitement; they hadn’t recognized me. It works, I thought. They see the hat, not me. There is a magic in it. It hides me right in front of their eyes” (485). The narrator realizes this opportunity allows him to be someone else, and not have to worry about what he does (whether or not he eats the yam) or who he truly is. This is his chance to truly make his own decisions.

This weird sequence of events in which the narrator pretends to be someone else is important in how it relates to the invisibility talked about in the prologue. The invisibility that “occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact. A matter of the construction of the inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality” (3). This invisibility is what we have been waiting for since the prologue, and finally we see it in the narrator as he pretends to be Rinehart. Ellison even does his best to remind us of the invisibility through a handbill the narrator picks up that says “Behold the Invisible” (495). And now that we have reached this point in the novel, I think we can all behold the invisible narrator as he comes full circle to the man we met in the prologue.

Parallels between Bledsoe and Mr. Kimbro in Invisible Man

Kimbro is a minor character of invisible man who is first introduced to the reader when the narrator starts working at Liberty Paints, but as we learn more and more about the character, more similarities between Kimbro and Bledsoe appear. The first time the narrator sees Mr. Kimbro, he is “searing violently at the phone” (198). This is similar to the unmasked Bledsoe we were introduced to earlier in the novel. This angry characterization of Mr. Kimbro continues as he gives the narrator a tour of the factory. He is in a hurry and tells the narrator “This is a busy department and I don’t have time to repeat things. […] so get your orders the first time and get them right!” (199). The need for perfection and control reminded me of Bledsoe and his power hunger.

            As the narrator continues his first day of work, he has more interactions with his boss, and the reader is exposed to more of Mr. Kimbro. One especially important passage was when the narrator asked about the black liquid being mixed into the paint.

“That’s it. That’s all you have to do,” he said. “Never mind how it looks. That’s my worry. You just do what you’re told and don’t try to think about it. […] And hurry, we’ve got to get this batch off to Washington by 11:30” (200)

The response from Kimbro is oddly angry, and we see that he is trying to keep the factory working perfectly. The last sentence tells us that, just like Bledsoe, Mr. Kimbro is working at the mercy of a larger power, in this case the government in Washington.

            Our narrator works well in his new job, that is until he runs out of “dope”. At that point, Mr. Kimbro tells him to go get some more, but when our narrator arrives in the designated room, there are multiple tanks. The narrator is unable to decide which is the correct, and picks the one that smells and looks the same. He returns to his job of mixing paint, but when Mr. Kimbro returns Mr. Kimbro realizes that the paint is ruined.

            The manager explodes at the realization of the mistake, and when he asks the narrator why he chose the incorrect liquid, he responds “Because it smelled the same” (204). To the reader, we find the excuse reasonable, but instead Kimbro yells at the narrator “Goddamit, don’t you know you can’t smell shit around all those fumes?” (204). The whole situation of Kimbro assuming what the narrator knows is comparable to Bledsoe and his assumption that the narrator wouldn’t take Mr. Norton to a different part of the college.

With all these similarities between his current situation at the paint factory and his time with Bledsoe at the college, the reader hopes that the narrator will not make the same mistakes. Hopefully, any traps or tricks will be avoided. Although the narrator, at some points, seems to think there are tricks being played on him, our hopes are wrong. That is because I believe the biggest parallel between the situation with Bledsoe and the situation with Kimbro is where they send the narrator.

           As we recall, Bledsoe gives the narrator false letters of recommendation and sends him to New York where he will not be welcomed. Then, after Kimbro has yelled at the narrator, Kimbro sends him to be the “assistant” for a man who is paranoid about losing his job. The result is again the same, and our narrator is not welcomed (he ends up being severely injured by the man he works for). We assume that Kimbro knew what would happen when he sent the clueless narrator down to the engine room, and thus Kimbro does exactly what Bledsoe did to the narrator not too long before.

Unconsciousness of Norton and the Narrator

            The idea of unconsciousness was used in a number of interesting ways in the third chapter of Invisible Man. The most obvious example of unconsciousness is in the case of Mr. Norton. The heat of the summer day, coupled with the shock of Trueblood’s story left Mr. Norton mostly unable to do anything. His unconscious state is purely physical, as he spends nearly all of the Golden Day scene unable to respond to what is happening. Ellison uses the unconscious state of Mr. Norton both as a point to focus the plot around, but also as a chance to bring up a number of important points about the narrator’s own unconsciousness.

            Throughout the third chapter, as the social norms are turned upside down, we see the narrator’s ideas about white power challenged. Even as Norton is himself in no state to wield his white power, the narrator is still scared. One example of this fear is when, during the hectic battle in the bar, the narrator finds himself face to face with Norton. Without realizing, he starts to scream as the passed Norton simply sits there. He is brought back to his senses by a patient who tells him that Norton is “just a man”. At this point, the narrator is just as unconscious as Norton in that he doesn’t realize he is screaming and he is unaware of the social situation he is in. The unconsciousness that the narrator experiences with respect to his social situation is brought up by the vet/doctor near the end of the chapter.

            By the end of the vet's speech, Norton is regaining consciousness, and begins to feel better after the numerous shocks he encountered. At this point as readers, we hope that the narrator will also wake up and see the situation as it really is. I hoped that he would understand the way that he is mistreated and how the system both doesn’t care for him and is against him. During the vet’s commentary on the narrator he expresses the thoughts that we the reader are having about the narrator’s treatment.

            The vet calls the narrator a “zombie” saying, “Already he’s learned to repress not only his emotions but his humanity." He then continues to talk about how the narrator is mistreated and we see a glimpse of rebellion in the narrator. “I wanted to tell Mr. Norton that the man was crazy and yet I received a fearful satisfaction from hearing him talk as he had to a white man.” This shows that is in some sense regaining his consciousness and realizing the issues around him, but this wouldn’t last long.

            By the end of the Vet’s speech about Mr. Norton, Norton had snapped back into consciousness and was ready to leave, but the narrator was still unaware of his dire situation at the hands of his white oppressors.