Brotherhood: Where the Individual is Invisible

          Throughout Invisible Man, the narrator encounters a wide variety of perspectives, including that of the Brotherhood, an activist group. The narrator begins the story idolizing Bledsoe, the president of the university he attended at one point, but progresses to later realize that Bledsoe was not the person he had idolized for so long. Later, the narrator joins the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood identifies themselves as an organization that focuses on activism, and when they meet the narrator, they offer for him to become a public speaker of the social injustices involving race in the community. Since the narrator had found public speaking to be enjoyable and as something he was good at, he saw the Brotherhood’s offer as a great opportunity to put his skills to good use. He knew what he experienced as a black man in society and the social and racial injustices that come along with his identity. The opportunity to become an activist public speaker seems too good to be true, and maybe it is. There is only one way to find out. The narrator takes the offer and begins his public speaking journey for the Brotherhood. However, as the narrator gets deeper into the Brotherhood and their true motives behind the surface of their “activist” ideologies. The Brotherhood essentially erases the individual in the group for the overall cause, therefore contributing to their invisibility.
          The first time the narrator is introduced to the idea that the cause is greater than its contributors is when he is first really introduced to the Brotherhood, specifically when Brother Jack states, “So it isn’t a matter of whether you wish to be the new Booker T. Washington, my friend. Booker Washington was resurrected today… He came out from the anonymity of the crowd and spoke to the people” (307). Brother Jack’s theory diminishes the narrator’s identity, as he is only a facet of someone else. The use of the word “anonymity” is also interesting because it adds another layer to the idea of invisibility being forced upon the narrator’s identity. On top of this, they literally give him an entirely new identity with a new name and tell him to essentially erase his past. The Brotherhood is plainly making the narrator’s true core identity invisible. The narrator may have a sort of inkling that the Brotherhood might not mean everything they are saying, or rather, having him say, but the perks and benefits outweigh the bad. Or so he believes at first.
          Later, Brother Jack reveals the meaning of the Brotherhood and their intentions to enact change stating, “We do not shape our policies to the mistaken and infantile notions of the man in the street. Our job is not to ask them what they think but to tell them” (473). Brother Jack’s statement proves that the Brotherhood believes that the cause is greater than the people. They do not think the people’s beliefs and thoughts shape their mission or purpose, but rather, they tell the people what the cause should be and how to accomplish their mission, following what they deem true. They completely erase the narrator’s identity throughout his time with the Brotherhood by telling him exactly what to say about a cause that they, specifically Brother Jack, can and will never relate to or experience. Then, when disciplinary action is taken against the narrator by them, and he is sent to speak on the “woman’s question,” neither Brother Jack or the narrator can speak on that from personal experience. The total erasure of the narrator, other members of the group, and the followers of the Brotherhood proves the Brotherhood has only one goal: make the individual invisible and control the change.