Chapters 13, 14, & 15

Chapter 13:

As we see beginning on page 267, there is an old black couple being evicted from their home by white men. The white men obviously have the power while throwing the couple’s belongings out into the cold streets and refusing to let the old woman back into the house momentarily to pray. Disturbed by the sight, the IM begins making a speech almost involuntarily trying to tell the hyped-up crowd that black people are “law-abiding people and a slow-to-anger people” (275). This change in dialect is significant to the IM’s character development to becoming accepting and no longer ashamed to act as a stereotypical black man would, though at this point he is not fully there yet. Although the IM’s original purpose of his speech was to conciliate the group, it backfired and only lead to arousing them more, leading them to violently attack the white men. The primary source of power in the chapter is the group of black (and few white) people among the crowd who rebelled against authority and did not back down when the police arrived. At the end of the chapter, the IM feels powerful himself after rejecting an untrustworthy white man’s job offer stating that he was “feeling a growing satisfaction that [he] had dismissed him so completely” (pg 294).

Chapter 14:

Chapter 14 focuses in on the Brotherhood and Brother Jack’s recruitment of the Invisible Man as the leader of their racial activism. At the Chthonian, Jack rambles on about how remarkable it was that the IM was able to move the crowd to action through his words earlier that morning. In the last words of his attempt to hire the IM, Brother Jack concludes “It is a question of who shall determine the direction of events...this morning you answered the people’s appeal and we want you to be the true interpreter of the people. You shall be the new Booker T. Washington, but even greater than he” (307). By saying that he will do more than even one of the most dominant and influential leaders of the African American community, Brother Jack is ensuring that the IM will hold a great position of power. However, the true motives behind the IM’s recruitment are still unclear. Jack quickly proceeds to give the Invisible Man a new name, to demand he break ties with his past, and to insist that he move out of Mary’s, ultimately transforming his entire identity.  If the Invisible Man takes on this leadership role under an entirely new identity, we are then left with the question: does he really have any power at all if no one knows who he truly is?

Chapter 15:

Oratory: No oratory in chapter 15.

Power:  “I’ll have to hide this mess! I can’t take her this and the news that I’m moving at the same time” (32).

The motif of power was not especially emphasized in chapter fifteen, but there is a glimpse of it the morning that Invisible Man leaves Mary’s house. IM is trying to leave, but is scared to tell Mary because he feels guilty about deserting her. In a weird way, Mary has power over IM in this section in the way that her emotions are driving his actions; he is very worried about telling her that he must leave and, as a result, opts out of telling her at all.