As a result, he is repeatedly mistaken for a man named Rinehart, known as a lover, a hipster, a gambler, a briber, and a spiritual leader. The narrator returns to Harlem, trailed by Ras's men, and buys a hat and a pair of sunglasses to elude them. At an emergency meeting, Jack and the other Brotherhood leaders criticize the narrator for his unscientific arguments and the narrator determines that the group has no real interest in the black community's problems. Clifton is shot and killed by a policeman while resisting arrest at his funeral, the narrator delivers a rousing speech that rallies the crowd to support the Brotherhood again. The narrator can find no trace of Clifton at first, but soon discovers him selling dancing Sambo dolls on the street, having become disillusioned with the Brotherhood. He is reassigned to another part of the city to address issues concerning women, seduced by the wife of a Brotherhood member, and eventually called back to Harlem when Clifton is reported missing and the Brotherhood's membership and influence begin to falter. The narrator is later called before a meeting of the Brotherhood and accused of putting his own ambitions ahead of the group. Neither the narrator nor Tod Clifton, a youth leader within the Brotherhood, is particularly swayed by his words. Soon, though, he encounters trouble from Ras the Exhorter, a fanatical black nationalist who believes that the Brotherhood is controlled by whites. ![]() The rallies go smoothly at first, with the narrator receiving extensive indoctrination on the Brotherhood's ideology and methods. Using his new salary, he pays Mary back the rent he owes her and moves into an apartment provided by the Brotherhood. At Jack's urging, the narrator agrees to join and speak at rallies to spread the word among the black community. The narrator escapes over the rooftops and is confronted by Brother Jack, the leader of a group known as "the Brotherhood" that professes its commitment to bettering conditions in Harlem and the rest of the world. He later happens across the eviction of an elderly black couple and makes an impassioned speech that incites the crowd to attack the law enforcement officials in charge of the proceedings. The narrator is hospitalized and subjected to shock treatment, overhearing the doctors' discussion of him as a possible mental patient.Īfter leaving the hospital, the narrator faints on the streets of Harlem and is taken in by Mary Rambo, a kindly old-fashioned woman who reminds him of his relatives in the South. This distrust worsens after the narrator stumbles into a union meeting, and Brockway attacks the narrator and tricks him into setting off an explosion in the boiler room. ![]() He is assigned first to the shipping department, then to the boiler room, whose chief attendant, Lucius Brockway, is highly paranoid and suspects that the narrator is trying to take his job. The narrator travels to New York and distributes his letters, with no success the son of one recipient shows him the letter, which reveals Bledsoe's intent to never admit the narrator as a student again.Īcting on the son's suggestion, the narrator seeks work at the Liberty Paint factory, renowned for its pure white paint. However, Bledsoe gives several sealed letters of recommendation to the narrator, to be delivered to friends of the college in order to assist him in finding a job so that he may eventually re-enroll. Norton the underside of black life beyond the campus and expels him. ![]() Bledsoe, the college president, excoriates the narrator for showing Mr. Norton away from the chaotic scene and back to campus.ĭr. The mental patients rail against both of them and eventually overwhelm the orderly assigned to keep the patients under control. The narrator drives him to a bar filled with prostitutes and patients from a nearby mental hospital. Norton so badly that he asks the narrator to find him a drink. By chance, he stops at the cabin of Jim Trueblood, who has caused a scandal by impregnating both his wife and his daughter in his sleep. ![]() Norton, a visiting rich white trustee, out among the old slave-quarters beyond the campus. One afternoon during his junior year at the college, the narrator chauffeurs Mr. However, to receive it, he must first take part in a brutal, humiliating battle royal for the entertainment of the town's rich white dignitaries. The narrator lives in a small Southern town and, upon graduating from high school, wins a scholarship to an all-black college. He reflects on the various ways in which he has experienced social invisibility during his life and begins to tell his story, returning to his teenage years. The narrator, an unnamed black man, begins by describing his living conditions: an underground room wired with hundreds of electric lights, operated by power stolen from the city's electric grid.
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