How genuine is the Brotherhood’s cause?
We are first introduced to the Brotherhood when the narrator is given the opportunity to speak in front of crowds for the first time since he was young. He speaks about real issues facing the black population all throughout America, and he believes he has finally found his purpose. That is, until the Brotherhood takes a disliking towards his style of speeches and intervenes. At his most successful speech, he decides to go off-script, and aims for an emotional response from the crowd, unlike the Brotherhood’s supposed factual, straight-to-the-point style that the narrator is supposed to take on. While he is very successful in connecting with the crowd, afterwards, it is shown the Brotherhood did not like the path he was going down. Shortly after this speech, he is sent away to talk about women’s issues (out of the blue), for what he knows to be fabricated reasons.
With that being said, why would the Brotherhood reassign him when he was doing better than ever? If the Brotherhood really wanted to spread their message to as many people as possible, the narrator was doing exactly that and more. Even further, the narrator is not educated whatsoever on women’s issues, so what does the Brotherhood think this will accomplish? My conclusion is that the Brotherhood is another form of keeping the narrator ‘running’, just like Bledsoe and others before him. At this point, it’s hard to say why, or what the Brotherhood’s ulterior motives may be for certain, but it is clear something isn’t completely right. Nevertheless, the narrator’s naivety gets the best of him, and he does not yet fully grasp the extent of the situation. This is most likely unconscious, the narrator’s materialism fueled by the Brotherhood’s deep pockets.
The Brotherhood’s suspiciously large pool of funds and lack of authenticity towards social justice makes the reader wonder what they really are up to, and this is a great question. My theory is that the Brotherhood is a type of large-scale ‘Bledsoe/narrator’ situation. When someone gets traction within the organization, and starts making changes, they are reassigned to a different topic (rinse and repeat). Now that the narrator has been transferred to talk about something he is not at all knowledgeable about, his affinity for talking and persuasion is being put to a waste.
Hi, you did a really good job of pointing out the super weird and suspicious stuff the Brotherhood does to 'advance' their cause and use the narrator as a pawn in their game. Your observation that they relocated the narrator when he was at his peak was spot on, and they probably did it to keep him running and they probably don't really care that much about the communities they work in. I agree that their way of keeping the 'narrator' running is by just transferring him to a new issue which he has no clue about the moment he's built his repertoire on a previous issue. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Ethan, I liked how you gave the readers of this blog post a bit of a reminder of the Brotherhood's treatment of the narrator. Your use of questions in your post gave me the opportunity to delve a little deeper into the novel and my perception of it, and I enjoyed how you answered the questions yourself. My perception of the Brotherhood's treatment of the narrator and his speeches is that they only need him when he is useful and relevant to their problems. Meaning, that there are very specific times that the Brotherhood needs a black man that can motivate a crowd or connect to people. Even bringing the narrator to the Chthonian is an example of their exploitation of the narrator. As Emma says in the novel, the narrator at times isn't "black enough", yet at other times, he is "too black".
ReplyDeleteYou make a lot of really good points here. I think by the end of the novel, we can definitely say the Brotherhood's cause is pretty rotten. I wrote my blog post about the use of the word "brother" in the novel, and I think as the narrator continues to learn more about the Brotherhood, he becomes more and more unhappy with their use of the word. This also corresponds with the reader learning how poorly the Brotherhood is willing to treat the narrator.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the Brotherhood is an organization that is meant to keep the Narrator running. They are originally framed as an organization that is meant to give him a voice to speak about social injustices, but they end up trying to strip him of his own voice. They want him to only spread messages that exactly align with their agenda, which completely undermines their credibility as an organization that is in favor of free speech and social justice. You did a great job of formulating that in your post! Incredible job!
ReplyDeleteHey Ethan, great post! I really like your perspective on the Brotherhood and its connections to other symbols in Invisible Man. It definitely seems that as soon as the narrator makes any societal or introspective progress, the Brotherhood shuts him down and redirects him, and the cycle repeats. I completely agree with your comparison between the Brotherhood and Bledsoe, as both outwardly appear to support and inspire the narrator, but in the end, the narrator discovers their true motivations to keep society status quo and to keep the narrator "running." Well done!
ReplyDeleteYou make really good points to question the validity of the brotherhood. It was something that stuck out from the moment the narrator joined the brotherhood, they wanted to be colorblind instead of actually facing the issue of racism. They convince the narrator that his voice will be heard, but in reality his voice is filtered by the brotherhood. This is a great post!
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