A verdict on the Brotherhood

I think one of the most interesting parts of Invisible Man is the Brotherhood, which is probably a direct allusion to the American Communist Party. I'm not completely certain whether Ellison is portraying them as a good or bad organization, because the narrator still sticks with them even as he's being shunted sideways and around Manhattan. We don't even get a lot of insight into the Brotherhood ideology which may or may not have changed my opinion on them. We only have a small set of interactions between the narrator and some of the members of the Brotherhood.

I really dislike the Brotherhood. For a society that's based on the advancement of the human race, they have some pretty backwards ideas. As a piece of African American Literature that's dealing with racial issues I think Ellison is spot on with his portrayal and subsequent criticism of how the Brotherhood confronts race. They pretend they are thinking more rationally and scientifically by envisioning a world without color. While noble in intention, it's immediately obvious that ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away. They are so blind, and they never see that narrator as a person, but a black object for which to shape to their whims (which admittedly is like any other character in the book, but I think we were supposed to have some hope for the Brotherhood). It's almost as if the narrator is... invisible. https://youtu.be/ZL4pokf2pT8?t=10s

But in all seriousness the Brotherhood sucks, yeah. As a final afterthought the more I read into Invisible Man the more invisible the narrator gets.

Comments

  1. Peter ZhangSeptember 27, 2018 at 2:58 PM

    Ellison does indeed show how pretending race doesn't exist can't solve the problem of racism. In Native Son, Bigger's outing with Mary and Jon also shows how the problem of race can't be solved by pretending the oppressed race is superior. All in all, the problem of race is more complicated than either of these attempted solutions.

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  2. Lili BanihashemOctober 12, 2018 at 10:15 AM

    I definitely agree with what you said in this post. So many of the Brotherhood's ideals and the methods they use are super problematic and troubling, and for that reason I think that Ellison is depicting a pretty negative view of the communist party. Even if the narrator sticks with the Brotherhood, his decision is not depicted as a good one, and in the end it does him more harm than anything else.

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