In the book Invisible Man there is more to the characters then the surface level and the characters change during the course of this book in different ways. Some characters rise in power and influence while others fall into a pit of black. Some remain blind while others open their eyes and see the truth. The character that develops the most is the nameless narrator.
The main character is never given a name throughout the book, so I will refer to him as the Narrator. It is ironic that he has been assigned names at the hospital, the Brotherhood, and in his normal life at the college; and we never learn of any of them. However, we do learn that the Narrator refers to himself as the “Invisible Man.” This makes sense because others look at him not as an individual, but as a stereotypical black man and we don’t learn much information about him.
In the very beginning of the book, the Narrator is in a clean white room that is brightly lighted, which is the opposite of the end of the book. During this time, he is blind to the real world and trusts people too much. An example is during the battle royal, he doesn’t see the crowd of men as racist, even though it is obvious to the reader. He is also degraded to nothing more then a fighting animal during the battle royal, but he still doesn’t think twice about doing what he is told.
A major character development point in the Narrators life is when Bledsoe expels him from college. The Narrator tries to threaten Bledsoe so he can stay, but Bledsoe tells him that he has influence beyond his comprehension and has links to very powerful people. After the Narrator leaves Bledsoe’s office, he decides that he will go and get a job where Bledsoe told him and then suck up to the bosses so that he would have power like Bledsoe’s. However, Bledsoe prevents this by giving him envelopes with fake recommendation letters that actually tell them to make sure he doesn’t get a job.
The next major development point is when the Narrator joins the Brotherhood. When he joins the Brotherhood he is assigned a new name and told not to make contact with anyone from his past. This signifies the Narrator the Narrator starting a new life and with that comes a new personality.
His new life is actually fairly similar to his old one, but it is a bit more refined. He is still being used and pushed around by white people for their personal gain. This becomes apparent near the end of the book when we find out that the Brotherhood was just using him to promote their agenda, and as soon as they were big enough they abandoned him and tried to get him killed.
When he gets abandoned he finally becomes aware that everyone in power will use others and then throw them away. He no longer trusts others as much as before and becomes aware of the reality of his situation. This is the opposite of the beginning of the book, and is also shown by his situation. In the beginning he is in the clean room that is brightly lighted, but now he is in a hole filled with coal that is pitch black.
The person who put him in this situation was Brother Jack. Brother Jack is one of the leaders of the Brotherhood and was the person who recruited the Narrator. At first, it appears the Brother Jack is a good man who is trying to help the oppressed. He gives the Narrator money and a place to stay, and in return all the Narrator has to do is give speeches to “agitate” the black population into action. He seems to be almost like a hero to the black community.
But, as we learn more, we find out that he uses the Narrator and others like him to gain power and push forward the Brotherhood’s agenda. He doesn’t really want to listen to the average man and try to help him with his problems, he wasn’t to tell the average man what they want and have them solve his problems. He reveals this on page 473 when he said, “We do not shape our policies to the mistaken and infantile notions of the man in the street. Our job is not to ask them what they think but to tell them!” An example of that in action is when Brother Jack wants to make the Narrator’s speeches more “scientific,” so that the population hears what the Brotherhood wants them to hear instead them hearing reality.
After Brother Jack had no more need for the Narrator, he gets rid of him. He does this by causing the riot and luring the Narrator downtown, where he knows Ras the Exhorter and others will want to kill the Narrator.
Ellision uses Brother Jack as a way to make reference communism. Brother Jack said he wanted equality for everyone, just like communism. But in reality, he still wants the Brotherhood and himself to be above the average man in the street and won’t let others gain power or know more then he needs to know to do the job.
The next key character is Ras the Exhorter, who is the opposite of Brother Jack. Ras the Exhorter is a black nationalist who believes that the blacks should have there time to rule and get rid of the white enslaver. He has He tries to obtain these goals through violence and promising people action.
Ras feeds on the Brotherhood’s mistakes. When they fail to take action, he takes to the streets and wins over the African-Americans in Harlem with his powerful voice and promises of freeing the oppressed. Unlike Brother Jack and others in the Brotherhood, he doesn’t hide the realities of life. He uses them to make his speeches even more powerful.
When Ras the Exhorter gains a large following and is more powerful then the Brotherhood, he starts a riot to take over the streets of Harlem and destroy the white enslavers. This is when Ras the Exhorter becomes Ras the Destroyer. The mob burns buildings to the ground and loots all the shops.
This all leads up to Ras and some of his mob corning the Narrator. Instead of giving up, the Narrator takes the spear the Ras threw, and threw it right back at him. It pierces Ras’ cheek and goes through to his other cheek, and in the confusion the Narrator escapes Ras.
The Narrator has even tried to hide from Ras by wearing a disguise. The disguise he wore made him inadvertently look like a man named Rinehart. Rinehart is never actually in the novel, but we learn about him due to his reputation. As the Narrator walks through the streets, he find out that Rinehart has many different identities, which include pimp, preacher, and lottery host. Rinehart has a reputation throughout Harlem, although nobody knows more then one of Rinehart’s identities. The Narrator is amazed at the freedom that Rinehart has, as he can become a completely different person at any time. He is also amazed that just by wearing some dark glasses and a large hat, he can completely change his identity. This fits back into the theme that he is an invisible man, because people only see what they already have in their mind instead of the individual that he is.
One person, who Ras wanted to recruit but couldn’t, was Brother Tod Clifton. Ras kept telling Tod that he should be proud of his blackness and not hide it; because he was so black he could be a prince if there was a black nation.
The way the book describes Tod, he does seem like a prince. He is described as being handsome, intelligent, and kind. Tod also had much power and influence in the Brotherhood, but this ended while the Narrator was working outside of Harlem.
When the Narrator returns to Harlem, he sees Tod Clifton on the streets selling dancing dolls. By selling those dolls, called Sambo dolls, he promotes a black stereotype because the dolls are meant to resemble a black slave who is dancing. The Narrator couldn’t understand why Tod Clifton would pick selling the Sambo dolls and betraying his own people over working for the Brotherhood and helping to oppressed. Because the Narrator saw this, he followed Tod Clifton to ask him what happened, but instead he saw Tod Clifton get shot by an officer because he resisted. It is never made clear what caused Tod Clifton to go from a powerful, intelligent, and handsome to somebody who is trying to sell a doll that is against what he worked for.
During the course of this story, many people change. Some gain power while others have to humiliate themselves to make a living. Power is shifted from the people to the leaders and from the Brotherhood to Ras the Destroyer. In the end it is mostly the same, the oppressed are still oppressed and the people in power still want more power because most of the change was nothing but an illusion.
