Invisible Man
Chapter Twenty-Three
The narrator goes to the rowdy bar downstairs where he meets people discussing Clifton’s shooting. They want to drag him into the discussion but he refuses. He buys bourbon and leaves.
When he gets to 125th Street, he meets people in different groups protesting. Some of them approach him; they circulate a petition demanding the dismissal of the policeman that shot Clifton.
A woman street preacher is preaching on the slaughter of the innocent. With this, the narrator decides to see Brother Hambro because he feels that the people have taken the issue of the shooting more seriously than he imagines.
On his way to see Brother Hambro, when he reaches Seventh Avenue, he runs into Ras the Exhorter addressing a crowd of people. Ras then calls the attention of the crowd to the narrator that he is the representative of the Brotherhood. He then asks the narrator what they are doing about the killing of Clifton.
Some of the people are already pushing him. The narrator tells the crowd that without answering the question, they all know him and what he can do. He then says that it is the Brotherhood that first took action on the death of Clifton.
He urges them not to mind what Ras told them and should remember that they are all Americans whether white or black. He concludes that the death of Clifton shall bring concrete and lasting changes. Ras the Exhorter responds that the narrator has not answered the question but the narrator advises him not to abuse the dead for his selfish end.
Ras the Exhorter then tells the crowd that the narrator is a paid agent of the white men. There is rowdiness at the gathering; some people support the narrator while Ras’ men confront him. As he moves away from the scene, some Ras’ men follow him and beat him up around a movie house until the movie doorman rescues him. They run back to the street where Ras is addressing the crowd.
He feels that the people might be looking at him from a far distance, then thinks that it is better to disguise himself. The narrator then enters a drug store and buys dark green sunglasses and puts it on.
When he steps on the road, a lady mistakes him for Rinehart. Rinehart is known to be a gambler, a briber, a hipster, and a spiritual leader. He then confirms that he has disguised. The lady then asks him why he doesn’t put on his hat. The idea of the hat also comes to his mind to complete the disguise. He enters the next store and buys the hat and puts it on.
The narrator afterward steps back on the road and many people mistake him for Rinehart as he walks towards Ras’ meeting. Ras is still blasting at the Brotherhood saying that it is time to chase them out of Harlem. He then changes his name to “Ras the Destroyer.” The narrator is now in their midst unrecognized.
He leaves the crowd and goes to meet Hambro. On the way, he branches at Jolly Dollar to test his disguise. Barrelhouse, the bartender recognizes him as Rinehart asking him the brand of drink he wants. He also sees Brother Maceo at the Jolly Dollar who also mistakes him for Rinehart.
Brother Maceo even engages the perceived Rinehart in a hot argument, threatening him to pull his knife on him. The place becomes rowdy which results in the narrator nearly fighting Brother Maceo to save his head.
It is Barrelhouse that stops them not to break his bottles, scaring them with a pistol. Barrelhouse then advises the perceived Rinehart not to pull his own pistol as his own is licensed.
As the narrator moves to the street, people continue to mistake him for Rinehart. An older woman asks him what the final number is. The narrator now realizes that Rinehart is a gambler. He then tells the woman that he is not Rinehart. The woman agrees when she sees the narrator’s show, and she then apologizes for bothering the narrator.
Some white policemen also mistook him for Rinehart, demanding money from him. He tells them that he is not Rinehart. They then say he better be the following morning and drive away. Some guys from the pool house and run up to him and ask him what the policemen want from him.
He explains that they mistook him for somebody named Rinehart. They then tell him to inform them if they come to him again that they will deal with them. They also advise him not to answer to Rinehart or else, he needs to have a smooth tongue.
A girl also runs up to the narrator calling him Rinehart and drops money that belongs to Rinehart in his pocket. The narrator then tells him that he is not Rinehart. It takes some time before the lady believes. She screams and leaves the narrator. He quickly leaves the place as some are already attracted by the scream from the lady.
As the narrator heads towards Hambro, two children are distributing handbills inviting people to church programs. The narrator picks the handbills and to his dismay, Rinehart referred to as a Reverend, is on it as the “spiritual technologist. “The topic of the program is “Invisibility.”
The narrator is thrown into confusion with this new identity of Rinehart. He goes to the church and two ladies mistake him for Rinehart and he decides to play along with them to avoid trouble.
A Series of thoughts go on in his mind about the possibility of a person having many identities like Rinehart whose few I’d known about and many things unknown about. He also thinks of Clifton, Jack, and even himself and how much is known about them.
The narrator is discouraged from continuing with the Brotherhood activities, he is thinking of backing out but decides to discuss it with Hambro if he can be able to convince him. He leaves for the West Eighties where Hambro lives with Tarp leg’s chain and Clifton’s doll in his pocket.
The narrator hears Hambro’s children singing nursery rhymes and he is reminded of his childhood period. Hambro is described as a very tall man. The narrator discusses Rinehart with Hambro, but the narrator even regrets ever coming to discuss something like that with him as he doesn’t give the narrator any satisfactory answer.
The narrator takes him as narrow-minded as a result of his training as a lawyer. Hambro considers Hambro a criminal.
The narrator then asks him about the future of his district since things are no more going as expected. Hambro then responds that there will be a shift in their approach, that they are making an alliance with other political groups whereby the interest of a group will be sacrificed.
The narrator then responds that the people need to know why they are being sacrificed. That it will appear as if they are being duped by the Brotherhood as raised by Rinehart. Hambro then says that the disciplined members will understand.
Hambro explains further that they need to slow down the aggressiveness of the blacks and the narrator tells him that he was employed for that purpose. Hambro says it is just for some time. The narrator responds that he doesn’t want to take the advantage of the black community’s trust in the Brotherhood.
Hambro then says it is in the interest of the black community. The narrator believes that some people want to be sacrificed for other people’s interests. He then cast his mind back to the hospital machine where he was caged because he was a victim of sacrifice.
The narrator leaves Hambro with a heavy heart. He forgets his hat and Hambro runs up to give it to him with the Brotherhood’s sheets of instruction outlining new programs. He thinks about leaving the Brotherhood or not but concludes to serve both the community and the Brotherhood.
He plans to pretend that he agrees with Jack and at the same time satisfies the community as he feels that he is being betrayed. He agrees with himself that playing multiple parts like Rinehart is the answer that leaving the Brotherhood this time is like going back to Bledsoe and Emerson.
He then reminisces on his past experiences and concludes that Brother Jack, Emerson, and Mr. Norton are the same.
The narrator is now in his room and ruminates over the events of the day. He resumes his thoughts on the Brotherhood. He realizes that the real objectives of the Brotherhood are no more revealed at committee meetings, he now thinks of a possible channel of knowing their programs. He says they have pushed him to fight them in the dark.
He then sleeps off and wakes up to perceive the smell of perfume. He then remembers that he held Rinehart’s girl’s hand. It then occurs to him that he can make use of Rinehart’s style to solve his problem of getting information from the Brotherhood; making use of a woman to gather information from the Brotherhood.
He then remembers dancing with Emma at the Chthonian and she showed interest in her judging from the way she held tightly to him dancing. He plans to hatch a plan at Brother Jack’s birthday party the following day.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The narrator is now agreeing with whatever decision the committee takes now. The community continues to go apart. There is a riot on the street, store windows are smashed and clashes erupt here and there. A group of adults refuses to take to the police directive grumbling about the killing of Clifton. The narrator doesn’t like this.
When he reaches the office, there are reports of clashes in the other parts of the district also. He then sends out some members to go and discourage them from further violence. He also sent a letter to the press condemning the riot.
In the afternoon at the headquarters, he reports that normalcy is being restored and the community is now interested in the program of the Brotherhood. He submits the fictitious names he compiles as new members. They are now convinced that things are going well and that the people of Harlem love the Brotherhood.
The narrator attends Brother Jack’s birthday. He plans to hook on to Emma, Jack’s mistress, and uses her as bait to get vital information about the programs of the Brotherhood. He then thinks twice that she may want to satisfy herself but may not want to reveal any important information to him. He only dances and leaves her.
The narrator then looks around for another option. There is a lady named Sybil whom he once met at the bar. She is an older woman, unhappily married to one of the big shots in the Brotherhood named George.
The woman showed interest in him when they met but the narrator didn’t look at her side. He meets with the woman and an arrangement is made in his apartment the following evening. Unfortunately for the narrator, the woman doesn’t know anything about politics or her husband, she is only interested in drinks and sex.
Sybil declares that she is a nymphomaniac and invites the narrator to have sex with her. He continues giving her drinks and she later sleeps off. He then takes her lipstick and writes on her stomach:
“SYBIL, YOU WERE RAPED
BY
SANTA CLAUS
SURPRISE”
The narrator then kisses her severally but changes his mind that such games are for people like Rinehart. He then cleans off the words written on her belly. When Sybil wakes up, she asks the narrator whether they had sex and he lies that they had it. She then asks him whether he enjoyed him and says they can be meeting on Thursdays at nine.
They continue taking drinks and the narrator’s phone rings. Sybil doesn’t want him to pick up the call. The call is from a brother calling him to come down to Harlem because there is trouble down there and he is the one that can solve it.
The narrator pulls Sybil up, takes his briefcase, and tries to find a cab for her. Taxi is not forthcoming, he then tells her to wait, so that he will go to the Fifth for a taxi. The narrator tries to stop a cab at the Fifth, but to his dismay, Sybil is already in the cab, inviting the narrator to board the cab and take her to Harlem.
He tells her to be going home and gives the driver his last five-dollar bill and the address she is to be taken to. The driver drives off. When he gets to 110th Street, the narrator sees Sybil waiting beneath a lamp.
He is seriously annoyed that he pushes her away. He then finds another cab for her and finds a bus for himself to Harlem where he meets a crowd of people.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Harlem is in disarray, there are riots here and there. The store’s windows are shattered and the goods there are carted away. People run about in different places and guns are fired. The narrator is hit in the face. He also joins two greats of two guys named Dupre and Scofield.
The narrator feels dizzy as a result of the injury he sustained. He manages to stand up holding onto his briefcase. People are running helter-skelter and somebody beckons on him that they should go. Stealing and looting are going on.
The narrator sees a woman with a whole side of a cow on her back carrying it away. Another man carries several boxes.
The guys with the narrator are also planning how they are going to break into some other stores. They think the narrator has also stolen some things that fill his briefcase. They then tell him that he is going to fill it more. He tells them that he has enough, though he has not stolen anything, it is Mary’s broken bank and the coins that make it heavy.
As they move on, the narrator asks for the cause of the disturbance. Different versions of the cause are narrated to him. Scofield says it started when a cop shot a woman. Another man says the death of Clifton caused the riot.
Another version says that it started when a white woman tried to take a black woman’s gal. The narrator’s mind goes to Sybil here but says it can’t be her. A man holding a pair of binoculars then tells them that it is caused by “Ras the Destroyer.”
A big lady is seen on top of a milk wagon drunk and continues drinking, throwing milk and beer all over the street. The narrator then thinks of how the lady will come down of the vehicle.
They afterward go to a store with the narrator and loot it. They take away the flashlights and batteries. They also fill the buckets with kerosene oil. They are back on the street and they see a huge woman in pinafore drinking beer from a barrel in front of her.
They then go to a big building that has different apartments where they live. Their plans here are unknown to the narrator and they want to send the inhabitants out of the building and burn it down.
Some of the occupants beg Dupre not to burn down the building, but he turns dear ears. They wet the building with kerosene and set it on fire. People are now rushing down the stairs to avoid being trapped by the fire.
The narrator then remembers that he is not with his briefcase; he then rushes back upstairs to pick it. When he comes back, he doesn’t know the direction where the guys go again.
Somebody in the crowd calls him his Brotherhood name but cannot decipher whether the person is a male or female. Someone also in the crowd wants to know the bearer of the name and says Ras the Destroyer wants to see the person, but the narrator has mixed with the crowd.
He continues moving among the crowd amidst the destruction, looting, and fighting. He then wonders why they want to see him when things are already in disarray. He then sees Scofield among the crowd again.
The narrator helps a man losing a blood tie tourniquet not to waste much blood. He then tells a young man to hold it tight and take him to a doctor.
Scofield asks the narrator whether he is the one who was being called the other time, and he says no. The police officers in white helmets are seen by Scofield parading and he calls the attention of the narrator and they run.
The people start throwing bricks at them from the rooftops. The police start shooting and Scofield also brings out his pistol. He threatens to kill a police officer whom he has wanted to kill for a long. The narrator asks him not to shoot.
As they move on, the narrator overhears the conversation of a couple talking about a race riot the husband says he would like to stay at a vantage position to be able to retaliate. With this, the events of the night now become clearer, that the riot may be organized by the Brotherhood.
Maybe that’s why they surrender their influence to Ras the Destroyer. Gunfire is now heard here and there. He says the committee plans the disturbance and he also contributes to it. He now runs ahead of Scofield who complains of a lack of bullets in his pistol.
He says that the Brotherhood will pay for what has happened and continue running. He then sees a white lady hanging by a lamp post and some more, he feels as if in a nightmare but discovers that they are dummies but can’t be sure if any can be human or Sybil. He hugs his briefcase and runs.
“Ras the Destroyer” dressed in the costume of an Abyssinian chieftain leads the members of his group in a procession carrying sticks, clubs, shotguns, and rifles. He is calling on the people to stop the looting and join them to go to the armory for firearms and fight. The narrator then takes his Rinehart glasses from his briefcase, but the lens falls on the street.
Ras suddenly sees the narrator and throws a spear at him and hits a dummy. Ras calls him a brother and a betrayal. The narrator responds that he is no longer with them and that he is against their policy of a race riot. Ras shouts that they should hang the narrator. He explains further that the Brotherhood betrayed him and that he thought they were friends but finds out they are not.
He says further that the Brotherhood abandoned them so that they would run to Ras the Destroyer for their destruction. He says like him, Ras is also being used without him knowing.
Ras commands the crowd to capture the narrator and hang him. The narrator grabs the spear thrown at him and throws it back to Ras and it rips through both cheeks locking his jaws.
The crowd follows the narrator as he runs to catch him but not to shoot him to death. He suddenly hears a rush of water and an officer approaching on a horse. He then thinks of going to Mary’s house for safety.
The narrator overhears the conversation between two people about Ras from his resting place behind a fence. They are talking about how Ras fought with the police with a shield, and spear and was unable to use his gun.
The narrator is out of that place and now walks on the darker side of the road looking for Jack. Some men accost him whom he initially thinks to be policing until sees the baseball bat they are holding.
They ask him what is in his briefcase. He runs from them and falls into a manhole that has its cover removed. They identify him as a Negro and he says all sorts of things to them. He tells them to come down and get him. The men cover the hole and leave. He is so tired and sleeps off.
He wakes up in the darkness and realizes that he needs light to get out of the hole as he has lost all sense of time. He sees a matchbook containing three matchsticks that those men dropped. He burns the only papers he has. He starts with his high school diploma and then Clifton’s doll.
He also burns the anonymous letter and the slip on which Jack wrote his Brotherhood name. He now realizes here that the anonymous letter was written by Jack when he matches the handwriting, and this surprises him. He then screams and rolls down the coal infuriated because of the way he has been played on.
The narrator dreams of Brother Jack, Emerson, Mr. Norton, Ras, the school superintendent, and others who have wronged him in one way or the other. They surround him where he lays beside a river of black water holding him and demanding that he comes back to them.
They are annoyed by his refusal and Jack then tells him that unless he comes back, he will not be freed from illusions. He responds that he will free himself from the illusions. They now come with knives holding him down, cut two bloody blobs, and throw them over the bridge. While in pain, he sees that they get caught on the bridge, hang there, and drip into dark red water.
Jack then tells him that he is free of illusions. Jack asks him how it feels to be free of illusions. The narrator answers that it is “painful and “empty. He then sees a butterfly circling thrice around the blobs under the bridge. He then points to it and they all laugh.
The narrator also laughs at Bledsoe and Jack asks him why he laughed, he then answers that he now knows what he didn’t know before. Jack threatens him and he says he is not afraid now. He doesn’t see them again later. The bridge then moves and the narrator tries to stop it.
When he wakes up, he realizes that he is like being in a different world and that he cannot go to Mary again. He can only approach the world from the outside.
He remains invisible to Mary as well as the Brotherhood. He says they are making a mess of the world. He says he will stay in the hole until he is chased out of the place. He will be able to plan peacefully from the whole without any threat or intimidation from anybody.