Blindness vs Invisibility

Prior to reading Invisible Man, I found myself perplexed by its title and struggled with understanding the meaning of the “invisibility” in this context. Now, after finishing the novel, I am once again unsure about its true meaning, but in a different way. I wonder if the narrator experiences invisibility and blindness, or if the people he cannot see are simply invisible as well. I wonder if invisibility and blindness are mutually exclusive, or if they come hand in hand.

The narrator begins his novel with a complete acceptance of his role of invisibility. He explains how he has come to terms with his role in society, and as he tells his story, it is shown how this process happens. I am not sure if he is completely blind, but I do think that he is invisible. As a black man in his society, he is marginalized and this is beyond his control. Whether he chooses Dr. Bledsoe’s path of playing the game and following the role he’s given, or if he tries to make a mark with the Brotherhood, he has never been truly visible the way a white man is: something he comes to terms with. 

However, one thing I think the narrator is more unaware of is his blindness. Yes, he is invisible, but so are others. There are other POC that he crosses paths with throughout the story, yet some of them remain invisible to him. An ironic yet interesting example is when the narrator literally does not see Tod Clifton selling dolls on the street, even though he is actively looking for him. Are characters like Tod Clifton so invisible that even the narrator, who is aware of this concept, cannot see them? Or is the narrator blind to a certain extent? And if he is, why?

Ulterior Motives of the Brotherhood

The narrator first commits himself to an organization called the “Brotherhood” in Invisible Man during Chapter 14. He does so when he realizes his financial debt to Mary and finally decides to join the group for money. In order to do so, the narrator is required to take drastic measures by adopting a new identity and abandoning his entire past life. The Brotherhood is a self-proclaimed activist group that wants the narrator to deliver speeches for their cause. However, the “cause” they are supposedly fighting for is unclear, and the group appears to hold no core values nor specific viewpoints. So far in the novel, the true intentions of the Brotherhood are yet to be explicitly revealed.

The reason the narrator joins the Brotherhood, other than for the money, is because the group tells him they work to fight for racial justice, a cause that the narrator has come to align himself with. He wants to protest and speak out against racism like he is promised, but many signs point that the Brotherhood has other plans. One of the initial red flags is when a Brotherhood member’s initial reaction upon seeing the narrator, is wondering aloud if he is “black enough” for their needs. The narrator finds this perplexing, and this comment begins to plant suspicions of the Brotherhood. This statement reveals that the recruitment of the narrator is performative and that they care more about his appearance than his actual person. 

A major event that upsets the narrator is his transfer to a different location, during which he is instructed to speak on women’s rights instead. The narrator does not share the passion for this topic as he does for racial justice, and in fact, he is very uneducated on the topic, merely reading a pamphlet for his speech. This action makes it glaringly obvious that the Brotherhood does not care about social justice, for they have no issue placing underqualified people to speak on issues they do not even care about. Much is left to be questioned about the Brotherhood, but one thing is clear: their intent is not pure, and they have motives other than working towards social equality. Perhaps the Brotherhood is working towards financial gain (the explanation I am leaning towards believing) or building a following for other reasons.