What's up with the Brotherhood?

            Clifton's sudden appearance and death in Invisible Man raised more questions than answers. Where has he been this whole time? Why didn't he return back to the Brotherhood? Why did he decide to sell the racist Sambo dolls?
           The death of Clifton also leaves the narrator and the reader somewhat torn about what to feel. On one hand, Clifton was selling these Sambo dolls that totally goes against what the whole Brotherhood stood for. On the other hand, the police officer shot and killed Clifton due to his race. The narrator feels a surge of anger when he sees these dolls but he also feels horrified by the fact that the officer killed Clifton. This scene is a lot for both the narrator and us to take in. In the end, the narrator decides to have the funeral event/march/rally for Clifton, choosing to spread the word about Clifton's death from the officer (but not including the detail that he sold racist dolls). But as readers we can understand this choice. Clifton's unjust death isn't the first to happen, so it makes sense for the narrator to decide to spread the word and let the community know of the event to try to get them to take action. However, since the dolls didn't play a key role in the reason why he was shot and the narrator never learned why Clifton decided to sell these dolls, why include that detail? It would just add confusion and make the story focus on a detail that makes the listener miss the point the narrator is trying to spread: an officer killed Clifton because he was black.
            However, the Brotherhood is far less understanding. They see the narrator spreading this story, ignoring the fact that Clifton was selling racist dolls. This part of the book is where it can get a bit confusing. I know from the sense I've gotten from the Brotherhood before this point, I could totally see them choosing to gloss over a detail like the Sambo dolls to use the story to their full advantage. I see the Brotherhood choosing specific goals and then using whatever they have at their disposal to get them to that goal. They, however, are completely disgusted by the fact that the narrator chose to use Clifton's death in this way. And I guess I'm just wondering, why?
            As I've thought about it more and more, I'm starting to wonder if the Brotherhood is not mainly upset because of the dolls (though it still may be a factor), but if instead it's something with either Clifton or the narrator or both. Clifton's disappearance was quite random, and as we talked about at one point in class, it wouldn't be unexpected of the Brotherhood to choose to remove Clifton and not tell the narrator that. Just think, multiple times we have heard about Clifton's violence. The Brotherhood wants to create change with science and words, so they might have decided that Clifton had gone too far in his violence at some point and kicked him out. Or it could be about the narrator. We already got some idea that something was up with the Brotherhood. They have basically ignored the narrator the whole time he's been back in Harlem. Could something have changed their mind about the narrator? Then the narrator stages this march/rally all on his own since the Brotherhood continued to ignore him. Could they have purposely ignored him to see if he would continue on his own, allowing another excuse to get mad at him (since they really seem to want to have an excuse to do that)?
            I'm not sure how many of these ideas could really be true, but I thought I would share them to see what you would think about them and if you have any ideas about why the Brotherhood is acting so strange.

Becoming "More Human"

           Now, this wasn't my original intention, but this next post relates somewhat back to my last post on this blog. While reading Chapter 16 for class on Monday, I stopped and thought. You see, the past week I have been thinking about ideas from Invisible Man that have stuck in my head. One of the main ideas that I keep thinking about was the development we see in the narrator. When the narrator is giving his speech, he says, "I feel, I feel suddenly that I have become more human. Do you understand? More human. Not that I have become a man, for I was born a man. But that I am more human. I feel strong. I feel able to get things done!" (Ellison 346). Now reading this part of the narrator's speech brought me back to thinking about the whole topic of dehumanization I thought about when reading Native Son and how Mary's death freed Bigger in a way that made him feel more human.
           Don't get me wrong, Bigger and this narrator have many things not in common. To the extent of our knowledge, the narrator growing up tried to follow whatever rules the white people had and accepted whatever identity they gave him. However, Bigger responded to the rules of the "white world" in a much more rebellious fashion. Sure, he acted docile around white people, but as readers, we could see his mind was much more conscious. Bigger seemed to understand the concept Bledsoe wanted the narrator to understand: give them want they want, but don't actually believe all their rules and what they tell you.
           However, this scene where the narrator announces his newfound discovery of feeling human, it felt quite reminiscent of  Native Son. Bigger felt humanized by being able to make his own choices without the constriction of the expectations of the white people. In Invisible Man, we have seen identity after identity be imposed on him, with the narrator trying to fulfill that role. Gradually, as the book has continued, we have seen the narrator start to wonder whether or not these identities are really good for him. It's easy to understand why the narrator didn't feel quite so human earlier in his life because, much like Bigger, he didn't have really have much of a choice of what to do. At this point in the novel, the narrator has freed himself from many of these restrictions and was giving a speech he believed in, not one to make some white people happy enough to give him a scholarship. Now only that, but the narrator is giving his speech through a job he chose to accept. As we discussed in class, there are some definite sketchy things about this job that does seem restrictive, but in that moment, giving that speech, we can see how the narrator can feel changed into a person that has this control over life. 
           Though something to keep in mind, at the end of the chapter, the narrator is informed he "is to undergo a period of intense study and indoctrination" (Ellison 351). Just as the narrator has this feeling of being a human, it seems like he is going to be restrained once more until the organization he is working with thinks he is properly educated. Will this education diminish this sense of humanness? Will it restrict his choices once more? At this point, I'm not sure, but it is certainly something to look out for.

An Animal or a Human?

One idea that really stuck with me when reading Native Son, was this idea of dehumanization. The African-Americans in this novel are treated like animals. People from the “white world” think that they need to train or educate these people to do as they want and have them living in housing that is smaller and inferior to the houses owned by white people, much like how many people treat animals. If the rich white liberals thought of the black people as humans, they would (or at least should) be trying harder to treat them that way. Mr. Dalton instead tries to “help” them by donating ping pong tables. I feel like the reasoning behind donating ping pong tables is much like the reasoning a pet owner has when giving their pet a toy. The pet has the toy to occupy them from doing something bad like shredding the couch. Mr. Dalton donates these ping pong table to keep the young black people (like Bigger) from starting some sort of trouble. When he does this action, he is acting like doing this simple solution will fix the problem at hand when the actual problem is much more complex.

Another example of this dehumanization is when Mary tells Bigger she wants to “see how [his] people live” (69). Mary doesn’t want to go to Bigger’s neighborhood to get to know him or his family or any of the other people but instead she wants to go to see how they live. It suggests that they are some sort of creature that Mary doesn’t know much about and she just wants to learn how that creature lives. Even when Max gave his speech, he dehumanized Bigger by talking about Bigger as a symbol, and less like a person. But I also must give Max some credit because I think he was the only person in the whole book that told Bigger, “I want you to tell me all about yourself” (345). For once Bigger was acknowledged as a person in this novel, and so it’s no wonder that we read Bigger telling Max, “I’m glad I got to know you before I go!” (423). Bigger got to meet someone interested in him as a person, and I think that helped Bigger understand himself.

I think by showing how Bigger is treated less like a fellow human and more like an animal, the reader can better understand the frustrations Bigger has and why killing Mary might have felt good for him. Killing Mary finally gave him a feeling of control and he could decide what to do after that. Bigger also would finally have attention and people fearing him. Before killing Mary, he was treated as lesser by the white people and he struggled to have control of his life with his friends and even his family. Bigger never had a true chance to make his own choices, and that’s what Mary’s death gave him.