The Effect of the Grandfather's Dying Words in Invisible Man

In Invisible Man we see the narrator go through a variety of changes over the chapters, with the narrator starting with this idea that if he works hard and pleases enough people he will be a successful person. But as time goes on and he moves to New York, he begins to develop more ideas of rebellion, free thinking, and thinking past just pleasing the white man. Bledsoe's betrayal of the narrator is what ultimately sets this off, and he thinks completely different after the "Liberty Paints Incident", where he is almost rebirthed as a completely different man. However, this whole transformation can be related back to one quote which has shaped the narrator's entire life. The narrator explains that his grandfather's dying words were "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 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." (Ellison, 16). The grandfather is telling the narrator to pretend to please the white person but in the shadows you must work against them.

At the beginning of the novel, the final words of his grandfather really scares the narrator, and he wants to completely forget about what his grandfather said. The narrator genuinely tries to please the white man so bad that he participates in a battle royale and gets electrocuted. He is completely oblivious to the obvious torture that he is being put through, as he is blinded by his goal, which is to get to college, and to please anybody he can. The narrator has this idea that genuine obedience will win him respect and praise from the white man, and will allow him to succeed in life. The narrator tries his best to prove his grandfather wrong, and when he does make it to college, he almost gets this sense of triumph, this sense of pride that he proved his grandfather wrong. However, the narrator couldn't have been more wrong. Throughout his time at college, the narrator is essentially just a chauffeur, and he drives people around, but he isn't set up for any sort of success. Sort of just doing the same sort of job as Bigger Thomas did, even though Bigger didn't even get an education. When the narrator messes up and takes Norton to the Golden Day and lets him visit Trueblood, Bledsoe kicks him out to New York, sending off the narrator with some "letters of recommendation".

Up to this point, the narrator still does not want to believe what his grandfather said was right. He paints Bledsoe as this pinnacle of what he wants to achieve, and who he wants to be. A black man that isn't invisible, and that everybody knows and is forced to listen to. Bledsoe is pretty much the opposition, the living proof that the narrator's grandfather was wrong. Yet Bledsoe isn't what he seems to be on the surface to the narrator. In fact, Bledsoe is the perfect embodiment as to why the grandfather was right. Bledsoe is on the surface humble and nice to white folk, but behind the curtain he manipulates and deceives white people for his own gain. And this is how he got into his position of power, which is exactly how the grandfather said to get into power. Bledsoe has a mask of servility and humbleness, but once that mask is taken off, he will be stripped of all his power.

The narrator comes full circle when he reaches New York, and his views on his life slowly completely changes from when the book started. After it is revealed to the narrator what was really written in the recommendation letters, the narrator's whole worldview is shifted. He realizes that his past was almost completely pointless. All his servitude of the white folk was completely fruitless, it never got him anywhere. He was so obsessed with proving his grandfather wrong, that he completely shunned out any possibility that maybe he was right, even after people like the veteran at the Golden Day told him what was really going on. This refusal to accept the truth allowed the narrator to throw away a good portion of his life, trying to please the white man. After the paint factory accident, the narrator stops looking to please others altogether. He realizes that he does not have an identity, and that becomes his new obsession, trying to find out who he really is. This is the narrator almost accepting that his grandfather's words were correct, and he no longer lives to genuinely please the white folk, as he finally acknowledges that that has gotten him nowhere in life. And now he moves on to a new chapter in his life, trying to find his own identity.

-Teo Chemla