Boiling Point

After being screamed at, insulted and even threatened by too many people, the speaker has finally had it. At last he loses control of his composure and strikes back at that stream of hostility that has been tormenting him from the moment he set foot on that factory. He was yelled at by Mr. Kimbro, he was mocked by Mr. Brockway and then he was verbally attacked by a union of the factory workers.
The speaker had never seen a union before, and despite meaning no harm or any contact with them, the members started harassing him, calling him a fink and threatening to kick him out. He didn't even know what "fink" meant, but it surely was a terrible insult. Apparently the union instantly labeled him a fink, which means strikebreaker, and they believed he had been he had been sent to avoid the success of any strike they could organize. The source of their hostility originated from the possibility that he could go and start "finking his finking ass off" (221).

Anyhow, the speaker is not aware of this terminology and becomes really upset by their behavior. What's even worse is when, ironically as it may sound, he is also attacked by Brockway when he finds out he had seen the union and threatens to kill him. This is where he reaches a boiling point.  How could it be possible that no matter what side he landed on, he would always be seen as the enemy? He was sick at been screamed an insulted at, and he finally found the anger to strike back. He viciously attacked Brockway and finally took a stand towards his own dignity. The speaker is a character with no party or allies, and nothing to hold on to but himself. Maybe that's why he isn't even given a name. This is why, when he is threatened, he can't hold on to anyone or anything, and he finally learned that he had to stand up for himself.
Too bad it all blew up on his face: literally.

Bossed Around

The speaker in Invisible Man is starting fresh with a new job. After finding out that his return to college is not part of Dr. Bledsoe’s plans, he decides he should take revenge. Taking quick action, he managed to get a job at the plant Mr. Emerson's son had suggested. He arrives to a paint factory in Long Island and is immediately plunged into a strange division of power. He is meets various kinds of people, all hierarchically superior to him. His first boss, Mr. Kimbro is a really temperamental man with an explosive temper and a fondness for dominance. He supervises his subordinates as they mix the paints which he will be in charge of shipping later. After an arduous day of working at the factory, in addition to severe scolding, the speaker is amazed to notice that Kimbro decides to ship the paint, despite the fact that it seemed to be faulty. The speaker later observes that perhaps “the quality of the paint is always determined by the man who ships it rather than those who mix it” (206). Still, despite this being true, it’s inevitable that if something goes wrong, the mixers will be the ones who will pay.

After Mr. Kimbro dismisses him, the speaker is sent to work for Luscious Brockway, the man who manages the plant’s boilers. This character is quite particular, because not only is he a black “engineer” working at the head of the factory’s most dangerous equipment, but he has managed to secure his job for many years, thanks to the “Old Man’s” (209) favor. According to his story, no one but him can manage the boilers as he does, and the Old Man is aware of it. Thanks to him, the factory makes the best paint in the United States. The speaker is amazed at how this old aggressive man could be trusted with such a job, and he realizes that the power he has lies in his special abilities that apparently no one else has. Anyway, his power over him as he works as his assistant makes him feel really humiliated. Still he was really annoyed that he would rank under that old creepy man. I still wonder how long he can stand to be bosses around by everybody, because apparently everyone ranks a step higher than he does, and in that hierarchical world he lives in, every second seems like a power struggle.

Keep Him Running

Life is really comfortable when you believe you have a heading. There is no calmer feeling than being sure that your life has a purpose and everything you do is somehow meant to help achieving that purpose. You feel self-assured and confident as you stride through life, knowing where the path is leading you. However, what happens when all of the sudden, you find that this path you were following has a dead end. You crash face first against a stone wall and you know it-s the end of the road. What do you do? How can it be possible that all your life, you had been headed towards that dead end?
This is precisely what happens to our poor narrator in The Invisible Man.  After suffering a major setback in his career, and being removed from his scholarship, he had gotten back to his feet and was looking for a way of getting back to college. Dr. Bledsoe, despite being extremely disappointed with his failure and therefore expelling him, had provided him with letters of recommendation to friends in the North, so he could get a job. The narrator took his chance and hurriedly set forth to getting a job. Everything had been working fine in his plan. He was decided to recover his pride and his place in the college, and nothing would get in his way. That is, of course, until he was a fronted with a terrible truth. Mr. Emerson's son, who was lucky enough to meet the narrator before delivering the letter to Mr. Emerson, revealed the letter's contents. After all he had worked for, all his efforts and dreams; it is sadly revealed that it had all been a scam. Dr. Bledsoe wasn't going to receive him back into the college. He had sent him away so that his "severance with the college [would] be executed as painlessly as possible" (191). It had all been a charade to keep him living on "vain hopes" (191), blissfully unaware of his fate.
As the narrator finishes reading the letter, he witnesses how his own world suddenly comes crashing down on him. Everything he had dreamed, everything he had fought for had been a lie. His role model, the immaculate Dr. Bledsoe, turned out to be his executor. It's like he had been living in a dream all this time, and he was suddenly awakened with a bucket of ice cold water thrown by a compassionate observer. Now he was a wake in the dark reality.
Consequently, the narrator's future is now torn to pieces. Now that he found his path was blocked, all he could do was turn back and move towards a new direction. His new direction, as he decides he would never be the same, would be killing Bledsoe. Perhaps this will be his new direction: a new plan that drives him forward, and gives his life meaning. The question is whether he can achieve it.

The Founder

Who is the Founder? Throughout the novel Ellison has made constant reference to a certain character called the Founder. Everything around the college campus seems to revolve around him, and everyone who can call himself important has something to do with this mysterious character.
Finally, Ellison decides to reveal to us the story of the Founder, and how he was able to achieve such a level of importance and prestige. Interestingly enough, the revealer is Reverend Homer A. Barbee, one of the Founder's close friends and the only black man in the group of visitors present that night.
Barbee's speech is a long moving homage to his deceased friend, describing his life and revering his achievements. Many times he makes allusions to the Bible, lightly comparing the Founder to Jesus when he miraculously survived a crazy cousin's attack as a baby, or to Moses when he led his people "across the black sea of prejudice, safely out of the land of ignorance, through the storms of fear and anger" (120). This strong metaphor of seas of prejudice and storms of anger reveals that the Founder's great accomplishment was leading his people, newly freed slaves, lost and clueless in that hostile land, towards a path of wisdom and success as free people. The Founder's goal, despite the obstacles and hardships he had to face, was to see the black man as a successful citizen in a society predominated by the white man. However, did he ever strive to achieve the taboo idea of social equality? Did he ever envision a society in which a black man would be able to live just like a white man?
He died out of health issues in the middle of a train ride. Perhaps this could be a symbol of his final goal. It could be possible that his death before his mission was complete. The whole job isn’t done yet, and maybe there’s still a long way before the Founder’s dreams are completely fulfilled.

In Search of Identity

As this novel slowly unravels, Ellison has decided to introduce the theme of identity, and many of the characters are subject to this pursuit of a personal identity.

During this first part of the narration, the narrator seems to be suffering a complicated fight within him. When he was young, he was strongly affected by his grandfather's dying words. He had always been known as a quiet, pleasing man, but before he died, he confessed himself to be a traitor, and commanded his successors to "keep up the good fight" (16) against the enemy. It seems that, though nobody wants to see it, the life of a black man during that time was a war. Whether he refers to war against discrimination and the oppression of the dominant white men can be inferred. The issue is that the dying man realized he had been a traitor to his own cause, and now wanted his descendants to avoid that. This moment is a great disturbance in the narrator's life. He lived his life as a role model in that hierarchical society, but his grandfather's words would haunt his actions. This dilemma would interfere with the understanding he had of himself, and would lead him to pursue his own identity. How could he live without becoming a traitor to his grandfather in the world which required his absolute conformity?

The encounter with Jim Trueblood would be an even greater disturbance, as he questions what is best for him. Apparently, Jim's actions were deeply hurtful to his family and all of his community, but it earned him a better treatment from the whites. This situation, apart from being Jim's personal dilemma, is a reflection of the narrator's problems as well. It leaves the lingering question of what his actions might bring upon himself.  If he hurts his people, then will the white men favor him and vice versa? The grandfather’s words echo behind this question. How can he avoid becoming a traitor?

Undetected

Invisibility is the condition this sullen narrator has suffered throughout his life. He's not literary invisible, of course, but rather ignored or neglected by an excluding society. This metaphor of being invisible describes the way he feels ignored, unimportant, and basically unseen by it. This is the way Ellison decided to begin his novel. The narrator, who is living rent free with free services, confesses that he only managed this when he was able to accept that he was invisible. Before, he used to live under the illusion that he was actually noticed by the rest of society, and he would live in accordance to this delusion. But now, he is proud to say that he has "illuminated the blackness of [his] invisibility-and vice versa" (13). He accepted his condition and even took advantage of it, using thousands of dollars worth of electricity for free with no risk of being detected, and has attempted to shine light over his own existence.

This novel proceeds with a flashback into the narrator's past, back when he was so immersed in the mirage he was blinded from his true reality. This is how he begins to reveal his story, and will likely lead us through the paths of his discovery, and the way he was able to open his eyes to the reality of his invisibility.