Self-awareness is the most human of all characteristics, allowing for discernment and true individuality. Ralph Ellison, in his novel Invisible Man, details the trials and tribulations of a young African-American man who names himself the “invisible man”, a title stemming from his lack of self-awareness, a fatal flaw that a volatile and divided American society takes advantage of. This invisibility manifests itself in the ceaseless manipulation and distortion of the protagonist’s own belief system by various characters throughout the novel, from the president of his college to the leaders of the communist brotherhood. In her essay “Man Underground”, Saul Bellow comments on the societal preference to condemn the individual with personal beliefs
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The entire organization, however, is predicated on the notion of communist transparency, a universal invisibility, the individual does not exist and thus individual thoughts and actions do not exist as well; thus, despite his newfound power, the protagonist’s invisibility persists. Members sacrifice their autonomy for the betterment and survival of the organization. Brother Jack recruits the protagonist for his particular skills, his rhetoric and natural connection to crowds, making the invisible man believe that he could one day be visible by massive audiences, manipulating him into believing that he would be the new Booker T. Washington, but despite Brother Jack’s seemingly authentic emotional connection and proposal, the invisible man is just an expendable element of the brotherhood’s secret plan to incite riots and violence. This notion of expendability, an invisibility from relative importance in the organization, resurfaces with a magazine interview where the protagonist states explicitly, “I’m no hero and I’m far from the top; I’m a cog in a machine. We here in the Brotherhood work as a unit” (Ellison 307); this unimportance is amplified further when the narrator breaks Brotherhood protocol by associating the group with an unassociated funeral, despite it being a funeral of a former member, “Brother, and you were not hired to think. Had you forgotten that? If so, listen to me: You were not hired to think” (Ellison
The entire organization, however, is predicated on the notion of communist transparency, a universal invisibility, the individual does not exist and thus individual thoughts and actions do not exist as well; thus, despite his newfound power, the protagonist’s invisibility persists. Members sacrifice their autonomy for the betterment and survival of the organization. Brother Jack recruits the protagonist for his particular skills, his rhetoric and natural connection to crowds, making the invisible man believe that he could one day be visible by massive audiences, manipulating him into believing that he would be the new Booker T. Washington, but despite Brother Jack’s seemingly authentic emotional connection and proposal, the invisible man is just an expendable element of the brotherhood’s secret plan to incite riots and violence. This notion of expendability, an invisibility from relative importance in the organization, resurfaces with a magazine interview where the protagonist states explicitly, “I’m no hero and I’m far from the top; I’m a cog in a machine. We here in the Brotherhood work as a unit” (Ellison 307); this unimportance is amplified further when the narrator breaks Brotherhood protocol by associating the group with an unassociated funeral, despite it being a funeral of a former member, “Brother, and you were not hired to think. Had you forgotten that? If so, listen to me: You were not hired to think” (Ellison