Invisible Man Chapter 10 - 14

The protagonist makes his way to Long Island, where the factory of Liberty Paints is located. The protagonist is put to work under a Mr. Kimbro, who tells him that he needs to mix ten drops of black ‘dope’ into the paint cans, and expressly tells him not to use his head while doing the work. He is told merely to follow instructions exactly as they are told, and when the protagonist produces satisfactory results, he is told that the paint is being produced for a national monument. His work is interrupted when he runs out of the black ‘dope’ and Kimbro directs him to the storeroom where he needs to refill it. The protagonist finds that there is more than one tank of ‘dope’ in the storeroom, and so makes a guess of which tank contains the correct substance by smelling the tanks. Kimbro discovers that the protagonist has used the wrong additive, and admonishes him for using his head. He takes him to his office as he calls his supervisors to complain about the protagonist's work and expresses his desire to dismiss him. Kimbro makes him correct the paint cans by adding the right substance before dismissing him.

The protagonist is led to the basement where he finds an old distrustful black man called Brockway. The suspicious man explains that the union has been trying to replace him, which is why he has shunned all previous assistants and never written anything down about the machines that he manages in the basement. The old man explains that his contributions to the factory are astronomical as he creates the vehicle for all the bases, manages the machinery so that it never overheats, and had also created the slogan for the factory’s landmark product. The narrator has a difficult time at lunch as he stumbles into a union meeting, and the members immediately accuse him of being a snitch due to his association with Brockway. The narrator is never allowed to speak as the union members decide to include him in the union after investigating his behavior. The mere mention of the union to Brockway causes him to become irate, and they are both reduced to blows. The protagonist overpowers the old man, and it seems like they have reached a truce when he offers the old man his hand. The old man then entraps the protagonist in an explosion of a machine as he tells him to turn the wrong gauge hoping to kill him. The protagonist survives but he hears Brockway informing someone that he had been unfit for the work in the basement.

The protagonist wakes in a sterile environment and feels distant from his thoughts as his mind is unable to focus on the doctors that speak to him. The doctors decide to keep him in the hospital for observation and begin treating him by imprisoning him in a small space that is supposed to work instead of a lobotomy. The protagonist’s thoughts remain scattered as he overhears their plans to give him shock therapy, and when he is exposed to these violent shocks, he hears one of the doctors' remarks that black people truly have a sense of rhythm as they watch him writhe with electricity. The protagonist is then asked about his name, his mother’s name, and other particulars but he realizes that he cannot recall any of the details. The protagonist is extremely offended when the doctors then begin to ask him questions about Buckeye the rabbit, a character from slave folktales. However, he can answer the questions and experiences a strange comfort in them.

The protagonist is soon allowed out from the small space in which he had been confined, as he is informed that he had been receiving the treatment at a hospital attached to the factory. The protagonist has to meet with the owner of the factory before being released, but the rich white man doesn’t quite seem interested in the protagonist. He asks to be allowed to return to work, but he is told that the work is too vigorous for him, although he will be compensated for his injuries if he agrees to sign a document waiving the factory’s liability. The protagonist asks the factory owner if he knew Mr. Norton and Dr. Bledsoe, and the white man tells him that he has never heard of them. This encounter causes the protagonist to realize that he is no longer afraid and he makes his way back to Harlem feeling distinctly different. He takes the train to Harlem but ends up collapsing just as he is getting off the train. He receives aid from a kind black woman, Mary, who has a reputation for helping out the needy in Harlem. Mary insists on taking the protagonist to her home as she feels the Men’s House could not afford a sick man any amount of care. The protagonist wakes in Mary’s bed and finds her reading at the table, and she explains that it had been evident that he had recently been to a hospital. He accepts the soup she offers reluctantly, unwilling to inconvenience her, and before he departs she offers him a room for rent.

The protagonist immediately realizes that he can no longer reside at the Men’s House just as he enters the building. He cannot help but feel contempt for the other residents who are still pursuing a dream much like him until it had all been taken from him. He mistakes a man for Dr. Bledsoe and empties a spittoon over the man’s head. He realizes immediately that he had been mistaken, and that the man had been a renowned pastor. He escapes the building without a backward glance and recovers his belongings with the help of a porter who informs him that he had been banned from the Men’s House for the next 99 years.

The protagonist takes up residence at Mary’s home as a tenant, but his compensation from the factory only lasts him so long. Mary continues to treat him well even as he fails to pay his rent, but her talk of the importance of leadership among the black youth is annoying. She had told him that the black youth would be responsible for shaping the future of their race when he had told her of his initial motivation to come to New York that of being an educator. The narrator walks through the city looking for jobs and reads obsessively at the library. The thoughts begin to crowd his mind, and he begins to give speeches as he walks the streets unable to keep from vocalizing his thoughts. In deep winter, the protagonist exits his apartment for some fresh air, but he becomes infuriated when he sees adverts about products that make black people appear whiter. Amid violent thoughts, he is overcome with nostalgia about home as he scents the smell of hot yams being sold by a man in the street. The delicious yams transport him back to his childhood and cause him to realize that he leads his life by considering what others might think of him. His college friends would have been horrified to learn that he had been eating yams in the street.

He finds an old black couple being evicted from their home by two large white marshals as a black crowd looks on the scene. The marshals carelessly toss out the couple’s possessions and the protagonist happens to notice the man’s freedom papers indicating that he had worked his way out of slavery. The woman attempts to re-enter her home to make a prayer, but one of the marshals shoves her back into the crowd. The crowd of black people nearly explodes with violence, but the narrator jumps ahead of them and begins to make a speech that starts with “We are a law-abiding people…” He talks passionately about the old couples' struggle with slavery which was then followed by the drudgery of existing in a world that continues to view and treat them like slaves. He pleads with the marshals as he requests them to allow the woman an opportunity to say a prayer in her home, but the marshal remains unmoved. The angered crowd now surges into the home as they beat the white men, and restore the couple to their home along with their belongings. The protagonist learns that the riot police has been called to respond to the incident, and escapes over the rooftops with the aid of a white woman, one of the few white people in the crowd. He is followed by a white man, who calls himself Brother Jack, the man buys the protagonist some coffee and compliments him on his oratory ability. He offers the protagonist a job as a speaker, but the protagonist does not understand the offer and refuses the proposal. The man advises him not to be concerned with individuals like the couple too much and leaves him with a telephone number to contact when he had changed his mind.

The smell of cabbage as he returns to Mary’s home reminds him of her poor economic condition, and so he calls Jack to accept the position that he had offered. Jack picks him up in a car with other men, and the car zips through the darkened central park to arrive at an impressive building called the Chthonian. Jack explains that they are attending a party as they enter the opulent building. They are escorted into the main hall by a beautiful woman called Emma, who appears to be interested in the protagonist but his hopes are dashed when he overhears her asking Jack if he were black enough to be the representative to Harlem. Jack takes the protagonist into a meeting with the organization called the Brotherhood, one which had been created for establishing equality among all men. Jack explains that he would like the protagonist to become the next Booker T Washington. The narrator is taken aback and believes that the Founder had been more impressive than Booker T. Washington. Jack informs him that he’ll have to cease contact with his family and that the brotherhood would find suitable lodging for him in addition to providing him a weekly wage of three hundred dollars.

They return to the party, where they remain until 5 AM, but during the party, a drunk man asks the protagonist to sing spirituals as he loves hearing black people sing. Jack loudly prevents the protagonist from singing and the drunk man is expelled from the party. The stern silence that follows the expulsion is interrupted by an infectious wave of laughter that begins with the protagonist, who believes that there was a way for the man to ask him to sing without it being racist. He dances with Emma and resolves to become more articulate as he returns home, where he notices that Mary has changed his linen. He is sad to leave her, but he is certain that she would be happy when he would repay her and so resolves to depart after meeting her.

Analysis

The Liberty Paints Factory is used as an analogy for the whole of the United States, a country built on the ideals of liberty. The author discredits the popular belief that the north of the country was devoid of racism as he reveals the prejudiced treatment that he receives from the white owner and doctors at the factory. This section of the book describes the procedure for creating the blinding white paint which entails the addition of a black substance. In this way, the author argues that the image of the powerful white race is created through the exploitation of black labor. This fact becomes clear as the reader learns about the contributions of the black employee in the basement, Brockway. The character proudly describes the many ways in which he is indispensable to the factory, but this veneer of self-confidence masks the deep insecurity that he experiences much like another character from the book, that of Dr. Bledsoe.

The narrator's time in the hospital is depicted as a rebirth, as he resurfaces from the depths of his consciousness without any knowledge of his identity or language. The sounds in the background of the factory machines serve as the sounds of a woman in childbirth. It is important to note that the narrator is born devoid of any parents, which harkens the words of the veteran doctor, as he had told the narrator that he would need to learn to be his own father. This process of rebirth is left incomplete until the arrival of Mary, who acts as a mother figure to the narrator. It is under her roof that he begins to form his new identity, and when he learns to embrace his black southern heritage through the episode of the yams. The book has been criticised for its depiction of female characters since they are always either means of sexual gratification or mother figures, and therefore do not represent any truly human women.