The Brotherhood

The brotherhood represents the ideal of stripping yourself of your individuality in order to join a group in which everyone works toward a common goal. The brotherhood is similar to a machine that is made up of multiple parts. Each person represents a replaceable part of the machine that come together to make the machine work and achieve something. However the importance of each part is small relative the importance of the machine as a whole. The brotherhood doesn’t see its members as individuals, but means at which they can accomplish various tasks. They only tell the narrator as much information that he needs to know in order to accomplish his tasks. As a result, membership with the brotherhood leads to the stagnation of the narrator. Because the narrator loses his identity and wears the identity that the brotherhood gives him, his progression as individual is stunted. The narrator says, “You might not recognize it right now, but that part of you is dead! You have not completely shed that self, that old agrarian self, but it’s dead and you will throw it off completely emerge something new. History has been born in your brain” which suggests that the narrators seeks the strip himself of the identities that the brotherhood and the rest of society has given him and starting anew by creating his own identity based upon his own perceptions.

It is also interesting that the name of the brotherhood’s building is the chthonian which is also the name of the gods of underworld. People gave these gods sacrifices in order to appease them. Similarly, the members of the brotherhood sacrifice their individuality in order to work towards the goals of the brotherhood. The brotherhood is also god like because they have control over their members and what happens in Harlem. Many of the descriptions of the brotherhood and the chthonian involve frozen water which represents the stagnations. In the lines, “I could see the word Chthonian on the storm awning stretched above the walk as I got out with the others and went swiftly toward a lobby lighted by dim bulbs set behind frosted glass” the light represents enlightenment which covered by a “frosted glass” which prevents individuals from reaching enlightenment.  The frost on the glass can also be seen as a contaminant that prevents you from looking from the outside and seeing the light through the glass.

Not only do I see the members of the brotherhood as blind, but I also see the leaders as blind as well. One of Brother Jack’s eyes falls out which reveals that he has one fake eye. His one eye suggests that he is at least partially blind and that though he may have good ideas, he tries to achieve them through incorrect means. Eyes also symbolize a way to look into someone’s soul. The fact that Brother Jack places a fake eye to cover the crevice where his other eye would go suggests that he is covering up something within his soul that he is trying to hide. 

Invisible Man - Battle Royal

The battle royal scene represents the entire novel and Ellison used the battle royal as inspiration for the rest of the novel. In many ways, the battle royal is representative of the system itself. Firstly, it is significant that the boys were blind folded at the beginning of the battle royal. Their physical blindness is representative of their multi-layer metaphorical blindness.  The boys are blind to the system itself and to what they believe the system has become. With the erection of black colleges and the abolishment of slavery blacks believe that society has progressed and become better for blacks. However the reality is that whites still view blacks as inferior and second class citizens. The boys are also blind to the true intentions of the whites. The whites pretend to help the blacks and act as if they want to help the boys but ultimately want to control the blacks for their own benefit. The true intentions of the whites are exemplified when the narrator accidently says “racial equality” in his speech and the whites become angered and stirred up. They do not want racial equality and they will not stand to hear a black boy give a speech about. They calm down when he corrects himself and says “racial responsibility” which shows that whites can tolerate blacks when the blacks are conforming to the values of the whites. The whites are also blind to the true nature of the blacks. By stereotyping all blacks into one category, the whites fail to see each of the boys as an individual. They are also blind to the true beliefs of the narrator who follows his grandfather’s words by agreeing with the whites but retaining his internal resentment for them.

The walls of the arena are symbolic of the confinement that blacks encounter within the system. They are stuck within the system and are unable to leave or change their situation. No matter what they do, they are unable to save themselves. By fighting within the battle royal, the boys further reinforce the stereotypical views that the whites have of blacks as animalistic and violent. The reality is that these stereotypes are forced upon the blacks and perpetuated by the whites. In order to survive, they must act violently, work within the system, and the blacks end up turning on each other. By fighting each other instead of the enemy which are the whites they do nothing to change the system and they remain in the metaphorical arena.

Another prominent image in the battle royal scene is the depiction of the white woman surrounded by the black boys. This creates the image of the eye and her tattoo of the American flag suggests that she represents blinded American values that are driven by sex and greed. Like the money that the boys couldn’t have because they electrocuted before they reached it, the woman is something that the boys cannot have. The scene is very sexual and relates to the animalistic nature of the battle royal/

Sonnet 129

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.


In sonnet 129, Shakespeare suggests that lust is an animalistic urge that drives human sexual action and ultimately leads to shame. The sonnet traces the different stages of lust in order to exemplify that lust leads to one’s downfall. The first stanza identifies what lust is and it describes lust as a negative desire. The first line calls lust an “expense of spirit” which suggests that it is costly to the spirit to lust and that you must sacrifice something in order to do something. It can be seen as something that contaminates the soul. The speaker goes on to add that it is a “waste of shame” which portrays it as shameful. Lust is also a waste because it is an unnecessary evil. The last two lines of the stanza list adjectives to describe lust and that suggest that lust is extremely sinful and dangerous. Lust parallels the devil which the intense immoral descriptions of it such as “perjured, murderous, bloody, and full of shame”. Lust is portrayed more like a living entity than a controllable emotion. Lust seems to have a mind of its own that allows it to over a man and use his sexual desires to compel him commit horrendous acts. Other descriptive words for lust such as “Savage, extreme, rude and cruel” connotes that lust is very animalistic. It represents a lack of self-control and sophistication.

The second stanza describes the effects of lust after the thing that you have been lusting over has been achieved. However even after it is obtained, lust continues to be a negative force that robs the person exemplifying it of their happiness. Lust makes a person feel crazy and “mad”. By definition, feelings of lust can never be quenched because lust is the desire for something(often sexual) that you cannot obtain. As a result, if you do happen obtain, you will begin to lust over something else that is currently unachievable. The line “Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight” suggests the happiness of obtaining what you have lusted over is immediately replaced by self-deprecation and a realization that what you are doing is wrong and sinful.

The third stanza illustrates the false illusion that lust causes one live under. Lust causes the thing lusted over to appear to be something good and necessary to have. However this is a façade that results from the blocking of proper reasoning. Lust drives someone to become “mad in pursuit” so they become fully engaged in the pursuit and will do things that they wouldn’t normally do to obtain the thing that they are lusting over and they may do something “extreme”. The speaker finds paradoxical happiness in realizing that lust is “a very woe” and only leads to sadness.

The couplet compares lust to heaven and hell to portray the true nature of lust. Lust appears to be heaven by causing you to chase things you desire. However in actuality lust will drive you to hell because it taints the soul by causing you to chase sinful things. The line, “All this the world well knows; yet none knows well” points out the irony that though it is widely known that lust is evil, people neglect that and continue to lust.

The Significance of the grandfather's advice in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

One of the most important quotes in Invisible Man are the instructions the grandfather gives to the narrator at the beginning of the novel. He tells the narrator, "Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open...Learn it to the younguns". The narrator uses his grandfather's words as a guideline for his actions in the rest of book. The grandfather wants the narrator to wear a facade in which he acts as if he agrees with the whites while internally he retains his resentment for them. The grandfather calls himself a traitor because he becomes blinded by what the whites tell him. However there is no definite right or wrong and it remains ambiguous throughout the novel whether the grandfather’s words are the best way to combat inequality. The grandfather believes that in order for blacks to progress, they need support from the whites but that they shouldn’t become blinded by the vision of the whites. The whites mask their true intentions by appearing to be helping the blacks so the blacks must do the same to no become manipulated. The narrator is given similar advice by the vet later in the novel who says to him, “Come out of the fog, young man. And remember you don’t have to be a complete fool in order to succeed. Play the game, but don’t believe in it – that much you owe yourself”. The invisible man is conflicted on whether he should follow his father’s advice. The narrator says that “The old man’s words were like a curse” which connotes that the words were a burden and a standard he had to live up to rather than something he wanted to live by. As a result of following the advice, the narrator becomes invisible and unable to affect his surroundings. His invisibility protects him from being attacked by whites because they believe his views align with theirs; however in doing so he loses his own individuality. His grandfather’s words plague him as he is trying to find his own identity. The narrator says that “When I discover who I am, I’ll be free” which suggests that he feels confined within his invisibility and lack of identity because it leads to stagnation. In the brotherhood for example, he becomes a cog in a machine. Brother Jack tells the narrator, “You’re a soldier now, your health belongs to the organization” which suggests that the narrator must sacrifice his own individuality in order to progress the goals of the brotherhood and that within the brotherhood he is just a body that they use to get tasks done.