Invisible Man
Chapter Nine
The narrator goes to Mr. Emerson’s office the following day and takes his breakfast in a restaurant along the way. He passes a man, pulling a cart full of blue paper and singing a song about a wild woman.
The song reminds him of home. He goes into the restaurant and just orders orange juice, coffee, and toast.
The narrator is in Mr. Emerson’s office. The office is well-decorated and there are birds in a cage. He hands over the letter to a man he thinks is the secretary.
The man then takes the narrator to a room where he asks him about his plans for going to school. His plan is to become Dr. Bledsoe’s assistant.
It is the son of Mr. Emerson that reveals the content of the letter by first advising the narrator not to ever think of going back to school. When he sees that the narrator misunderstands him, he then hands the letter over to him to read.
The letter reveals that the narrator is no more a member of the school community and will never return to school. The letter requests that Mr. Emerson should continue giving him the hope of returning to the college.
The hope of the narrator is dashed with the content of the letter. He could not believe what he reads in the letter.
The narrator is greatly shocked by this revelation as he cannot believe what he read. Emerson junior then advises him to forget about getting any help from the people. He tells him that he has been fired and invites him to his party in the evening which the narrator turns down.
He then advises the narrator to take a job with Liberty Paints. He agrees to the suggestion and calls the company. He is asked to report on the second day.
Chapter Ten
The Liberty Paints Company is located in Long Island. The frontage is decorated with flags which makes it appear patriotic. Mr. MacDuffy interviews him and he is assigned to work with Mr. Kimbrough.
A boy takes him to Mr. Kimbrough who is shouting at somebody over the phone. The narrator has a smooth ride at the paint company because he uses Mr. Emerson’s name without his knowledge.
Mr. Kimbrough teaches the narrator how to mix ten drops of liquid into each bucket of paint and also shows a sample on a little bit of wooden board. The narrator observes that the drops are black while the paint shows white when it is dried.
It is not even ordinary white but optic white. This makes the paint company unique. The painting that the narrator is working on is for a government monument.
The narrator is to fill over seventy-five buckets. His boss, Mr. Kimbrough does not tell him which toner he is supposed to use. He realizes he has made mistakes when the paint comes out with a great tinge. Mr. Kimbrough notices this but allows the narrator to continue mixing more buckets now with the right kind of toner.
The narrator then angrily fills the buckets he made mistakes about. The color comes out again, not perfectly white again. Mr. Kimbrough is mad at him when he comes back asking him who gave him the did he get the materials he mixed from and who directed him to use it. The narrator responds that he got it from the painting room.
Mr. Kimbrough then makes a report to Mac through the phone that he cannot work with the narrator, because he doesn’t need his services. MacDuffy then reposts him to Mr. Lucius Brockway as his assistant. He now works in the basement of Building No. 2 as Brockway’s assistant.
Mr. Brockway is somebody who always thinks that people are after him and that they want to take his job. He asks the narrator annoying questions. He expresses how important he is in the company and how the company cannot do without him.
The narrator is surprised that Mr. Brockway has much authority without undergoing any engineering training. Every paint must pass through him in the company.
The man has been with the company from the beginning and the company finds it difficult to change him to a highly educated person. Mr. Brockway tells the narrator the slogan he formed for the company, “if it is Optic White, it’s the Right White.” The narrator comprehends that “if you are White, you are Right.”
Mr. Brockway then tells the narrator that it is time for lunch. The narrator goes to the locker room for his pork chop sandwich. The narrator on getting to the locker room, is surprised to meet a group of people meeting there. It is a union meeting. They ask him who his foreman is.
They are annoyed when he tells them that Mr. Brockway is his foreman and some of them shout that he should be thrown out, calling him a traitor. He is eventually allowed to take his sandwich and leave.
The narrator is back in the basement and Mr. Brockway asks him why he kept late. He tries to narrate what happened over there. When he hears that he was held by the union meeting, he flares up and threatens to kill the narrator that he has joined issues with his enemies.
The narrator also fights back to save his life. He feels as if the man stabs him in the shoulder with a knife, he then takes an iron bar and nearly hits Mr. Brockway with it. The narrator later realizes that Mr. Brockway didn’t stab him but only bit him with the artificial teeth which have fallen to the ground. He allows him to pick the teeth.
Mr. Brockway, almost in tears, complains about how people are trying to take his job. He also complains about how the black students working in the company join the union and that they are ungrateful for the good jobs offered to them in the company.
The narrator then explains to exonerate himself that he doesn’t know anything about the union and that he is just there to take a temporary job. He then tries to make peace with Mr. Brockway but at that instance, the boiler starts to make some sounds.
Mr. Brockway then tells the narrator to turn the white valve which doesn’t work and Mr. Brockway runs away. The narrator is blasted and falls to the ground unconscious.
When he regains consciousness, he hears someone saying that the boys born around nineteen hundred are not good for the job as they don’t have the nerves for the job. The narrator wants to respond but he is weighed down to utter any statement.