Invisible Man Connections

I found it extremely interesting how the speaker is constantly forced into conformity as can be illustrated by the numerous times that he is forced to become "submissive" under several authority figures. For instance, many times the narrator folds under not only his grandfather's constant request that visit him through numerous subliminal messages such as dreams, flashbacks, illusions, and even freudian slips but also the demands that are pressured upon him by nearly everyone that the narrator encounters whether it be Bledsoe, Mr. Norton or the Brotherhood itself. Such can be illustrated by the fact that Brother Jack tells the narrator "This is your new identity" (309), commanding him to erase his name, and therefore, his past by deleting the most central means of identification. Furthermore, more instructional and didactic tones are used against the narrator once he finished giving his speech in front of the crowd, such can be illustrated by the reprimand, "it was the antithesis of the scientific approach. Ours is a reasonable point of view. We are champions of a scientific approach to society, and such a speech as we've identified ourselves with tonight destroys everything that has been said before" (350). This condemnation of the narrator's sentimental speech techniques is juxtaposed against the scientific and reasoning structure that the Brotherhood advocates, therefore further accentuating the fact that the narrator is not only forced to mask his identity by sacrificing his name but also must forsake his own characteristic mannerisms and behavior in order to gain acknowledgment by the brotherhood. Such can be illustrated by the fact that the brother hood then suggests that the narrator "must be trained...there's hope that our wild but effective speaker may be tamed" (351). In fact, the narrator is forced to "stay completely out of Harlem" (351) until he is to "be guilty of no further unscientific speeches to upset our brothers' scientific tranquillity" (351). Hence such depicts the fact that the narrator is forced to not reveal himself until he is able to fall into the "communistic" behavior that has been prescribed by the Brotherhood; any actions that are unwelcoming will result in exile or permanent disregard. However, despite the fact that the narrator realizes that he "was someone new," it is ironic how he reverts back to the mannerisms that he describes "spoken in a very old-fashioned way," while simultaneously believing he had been transformed. He goes on to extrapolate, saying how "even his technique had been different; no one who had known me at college would have recognized the speech." Yet, he also begins to say that he would "not only represent my own group but one that was much larger." There are layers upon layers of ironic commentary in this section. Although the narrator had just emerged "reborn" from the paint explosion from Liberty Paints he still believes that he has become a completely changed man just because of his new name but is still ambivalent about where his change comes from. He believes that internally he has changed to become a different person, but couldn't he simply be returning to his roots? When the narrator says "spoken in a very old-fashioned" way couldn't he simply be speaking of his grandfather and his black heritage. How can the narrator claim that he is completely reborn when he is unable to have his own identity, but is instead manufactured one by being given a "mechanical" birth, a predestined 'destiny', and handed down a name as well as job that he has no control over. even the narrator seems to grapple with this question as he "sat there in the dark" thinking "of the speech" as "already it seemed the expression of someone else...yet i knew that it was mine and mine alone."