Flamingo Think Tank

In Invisible Man, the narrator is taken in by a group known as the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is an organization that presents itself s revolutionary, pro-equality, and free. Yet somehow, this organization manages to promote and perpetuate racial stereotypes, inequality on the basis of race and gender, and forces its members to conform to a strict system of rules. It functions very similarly to Liberty Paints and to the college that the narrator attended which are both very much a part of the system that the Brotherhood is supposedly fighting to overthrow. The Brotherhood holds within itself a paradox--though it claims to be a radical and egalitarian organization, it aligns itself with practices and beliefs that are big parts of the inequality "the system" promotes. The Brotherhood claims to be a "rainbow coalition," a post-racial society and an equal society for all people. However, the behavior of the members of the organization, when they interact with the na

In Chapter 11 of Ellison's  Invisible Man  the narrator goes to work at a paint factory called Liberty Paints. This factory is enormous and seems to function as its own city. Many of the qualities that it possesses are parallel to those possessed by America. The way that it is run, the positions held by African Americans, even the name seem to have symbolism relating Liberty Paints to the American system. In this way, Liberty Paints seems to serve as an allegory for the country of America. The way that the narrator experiences the chain of command in Liberty paints seems parallel to the way that he experiences hierarchies in the rest of his life. The narrator is explicitly told by Kimbro that he "just has to do what [he's] told and don't try to think about it". This is very similar to the way he was treated by Bledsoe, Norton and the white southerners. They just give him orders and he is expected to follow them without thought. However, just like in the rest o

In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man,  "The Narrator" is often put in similar situations to those that Bigger Thomas found himself in in Native Son. He is forced to drive his charge outside of the university when he was instructed to drive them to the university, and he ends up taking Norton to a place that he is not comfortable being with Norton in (similar to when Bigger was forced to take Mary and Jan to the restaurant). However, when put in these situations he responds differently than Bigger Thomas. As such,  " The Narrator" seems to represent the result of a thought experiment that many reader's of Richard Wright's  Native Son will likely have tried out themselves: what would have been different if Bigger Thomas had had a better education? Is this comparison valid? When exploring this interpretation of "The Narrator" an important question arises--does "The Narrator" complement or clash with the naturalist undertones of Native Son