Character Analysis

M. Annunziato
Invisible Man

In Chapters 13-21 the unnamed narrator joins up with a group known as "the Brotherhood"; this is an organization that says they are against the oppression, divisions, and loss of heritage that plagues the African American people. He is first found by this organization while watching an elderly black couple being evicted from their home with all their worldly possessions being strewn across the ground when he becomes enraged by this occurance and gives a speech spurring the surrounding crowd of people to help this poor couple. Brother Jack, the leader of the Brotherhood, sees the narrator and quickly invites him to join his group. On page 292 while conversing with the narrator about the possiblity of joining he says "Perhaps you would be interested in working for us...with our organization. we need a good speaker for this district. Someone who can articulate the grievances of the people." At first glance this seems like a great offer from a good person that would ultimately allow the narrator to speak publicly but as the story progresses we get a deeper look into the Brotherhood and Brother Jack who personifies what the Brotherhood stands for. In actuality the group is racist and seeks to use the narrator as a tool to achieve their personal goals by using the narrator's black heritage to sway the public's opinions and views. As part of joining this organization the narrator must change his name and abandon his past completely which is actually what he has been against so far in this book; he will need to give up his entire identity, forget his family, and start a new life as a new person. He quickly accepts this offer, almost too quickly which also will give insight into his character. So in essence the Brotherhood is a highly manipulative group at this point. At the first speech that is given the narrator's speech is praised by the audience but the members of the Brotherhood don't think that the way he speaks is the way that he should be; to fix this "problem" the narrator is sent away to be basically brainwashed in believing the Brotherhood's ideology and views. He does all this without a fight.
The narrator is apparently the perfect addition to the Brotherhood; in a very short amount of time he has completely taken in all of their views while throwing some of his own away. In the early pages of chapter 13 he thinks of his old college classmates as hypocrites for loving things from the south but completely disregarding there feelings because of the south's history with African Americans. In this pages we are able to see the narrator as a hypocritical character as well for changing all his views because someone says that they want to help his people. It is obvious that the narrator has some very strong qualities such as being able to speak very well publicly which is an invaluable skill but it just seems that he is very trusting and willing to change without fully understanding everything that is happening behind the scenes. In chapter 18 the narrator receives a somewhat racist letter and when he is warned by another black Brotherhood member that some poeple in the group do have racist tendencies he simply disregards this idea feeling that the group wouldn't harbor hatred towards a people that they claim to be helping and supporting.
In these pages we are allowed to watch as the narrator grows in the story and becomes involved with new people that he doesn't know all that well. He seems to be operating off of hope and trust right now. From the begining of the book his grandpa was a great influence in his actions and the Brotherhood makes him almost disown his family since technically they do not exist for his new persona. It will be very interesting to see how the narrator changes throughout the rest of the book as well as seeing what other characterstics of the Brotherhood and its members are revealed.