"Brothers"

Ellison's portrayal of the Brotherhood starts off a lot stronger than it ends. It actually ends in the last chapter when the IM discovers brother Jack was the one who sent the threatening letters about his position. All of these hints, and scenes where IM's trust of the Brotherhood is tested, the strength of the organization is disqualified, although not de-sanctified in IM's mind until the very end.

One of the key moments we see the fragility of the brotherhood is when IM comes back from downtown and meets some of his former "brothers" at a bar. He has casual conversation with the bartender, but when he recognizes some people from the Brotherhood but they respond to him pretty bitterly. It seems as though they were cast out, or somehow got a distaste for the organization because IM claims, "I was certain they knew who I was" (424). But they refuse to call him brother and say, indirectly to IM, "some of us dont think so much of his kind of politics" (426).

The author is clearly critiquing the power structure of the Brotherhood, which, in larger society, was a metaphor for communism. The mistrust of two former believers in the Brotherhood is like mutiny, but mutiny under a benevolent leader is disgraceful, whereas these men--the workers--seemed to believe they were the ones given the short end of the stick.

The ideology of the Brotherhood was just from the beginning, but like many political power structures had deep cracks that could not be filled like that of racial inequality and overall trust issues. All of the instances where the IM did nothing wrong and was criticized, like when he did an interview, or when Clifton died, looked very sketchy compared to Brother Jack's extreme power. And from the beginning we suspected this Brotherhood deal would end up badly. The critique of communism, and other power structures where the main leader has a particular agenda (in this case using the IM and then dumping him) is a clear theme in the book manifested heavily in all of IM's story with the Brotherhood.

Resurrection

In the start of the Invisible man's story (after the prologue) the readers are following a plot where he gets exiled or banished into positions where he has no where to go, yet rises up from the ashes of his previous life. Through this trend we see his personal development and growth as an individual.

His opportunities are not always based on his own accord, most of the time he has help. For example the first time he get's kicked out of his establishment is when Bledsoe sends IM to Harlem with "letters of recommendation." After wandering from job inquiry to job inquiry, he finds himself at Emerson's company with reading the fateful words in Bledsoe's letter which had made it virtually impossible to get a job. The fact that he will never go back to school, and was played by the number one person he looked up to, is crushing news for him, yet indicates the first step into his discovery process. From this low point, he channels his energy into finding a  job and a place to stay (Mary's). 

In one day, his life is turned around again.

At Liberty Paints (where he spitefully took a job Emerson jr recommended), he is in a different caste system where he ends up again majorly injured and thrown out. He survives and explosion, but is in some kind of hospital where they are experimenting with shocking his brain. In this scene the allusion to re-birth is actually overt and he is discharged from the hospital still in a stage of re-learning vital things about his life. But he does not get his job back and is sent to a place where he has little to do and explore, the Men's house. In this stage of his character development, he has vague memories and is re-understanding the world, this time with less illusional perspective. This leads him to mistake a man for Bledsoe and cause damage that gets him thrown out of his situation again. But, this time he has Mary's offer and goes to live with her.

While he is living with her, not really doing anything, he comes across an eviction and speaks out for his race "of law-abiding people," and has such a moving effect, an organization called the Brotherhood contacts him about taking a job. Not surprisingly, he is refreshed with a new identity and place of residence. He has more agency in evoking this change/new chapter in his life than before, and we see the Invisible man start to emerge into a substance rather than the shell he was at the beginning of the story. He is making decisions and creating his own aspirations that are like the narrator we see in the prologue, but also on a much more visible social scale.

This theme of resurrection is so far recurrent in Invisible Man's story, but it leads to the question: how did he end up in the setting of the prologue? Did his public drive fade? Did life circumstances lead him to become out of touch with the system of race and economic class heirarchies that he has been playing in since the beginning of his life?  or so in touch with this system that he has embedded himself very deeply and disappeared indefinitely?

Invisible man drug theater

I found the part of Invisible man where he listens to music in his hole smoking weed, an interesting introduction to the book. We talked a lot in class about the assault scene as an introduction, but this narrative about the IM descending into the levels of this Louis Armstrong song reflects a lot more of the racist tension/circumstance he is a part of and his subconscious reflection on it.
I would not dissect this, because right now it is too abstract for me to understand. But, I liked the insight about his moral questioning when he visualizes in the woman who is crying that her master died. He asks her what freedom and she says, "I done forgot, son." (11) In her life, she was so helpless that Stockholm syndrome took over in her mind and she became attached to this master who raped her rather than being able to experience freedom that was such a sweet ideal for slaves. Already he establishes how much his reality (not his reality, but a reality of his culture that obviously affects him greatly) has this helpless, and in some ways invisible nature. This woman who was taken advantage of was scorned by her sons for being in love with their father, and neglected by her master. No one takes care of her, or cares except the IM who is asking her about freedom and her confusing life.
He also mentions "Ras" who I am sure we will meet later on, but I have a feeling he will be important in the narrative of invisibility, because that is the theme of the book, and more specifically the vision, and IM hears footsteps behind him and immediately thinks of this character. I don't know who he is but also the way IM calls him "Destroyer? Rinheart?" (12) seems like he has a specific personality that IM man knows him as.
Any more thoughts on the vision? Maybe in relation to the song as well?