Invisible Man Chapter 20 - Epilogue

The protagonist returns to find a Harlem with a transformed attitude towards the Brotherhood, as he visits a bar to meet a local contact and finds himself treated with hostility by some of the patrons. The barkeeper explains that a lot of people are unhappy with the brotherhood since it has laid off many of its old workers, including the protagonist’s old contact. The protagonist returns to the Harlem office empty and finds that Brother Tarp has left the organization as well. He learns that the brotherhood has begun focussing on national issues but he is unable to understand why it has chosen to ignore the progress that they had made in Harlem. He hopes to raise the issue in the general strategy meeting but he is never invited to it, and he goes down to the headquarters to discover that the meeting is underway with strict instructions about preventing any interruptions. He heads out to buy some shoes for himself, choosing to suppress the anger he felt at being excluded and happens upon a crowd gathered around a man selling racist Sambo dolls. The narrator is furious to see that Clifton is the proprietor of the Sambo dolls, and he angrily spits on the doll just as the arrival of the police interrupts the show. The protagonist picks up one of the dolls and follows Clifton around the corner to see him punch a policeman. The policeman collapses and then pulls out his gun to shoot Clifton dead.

The protagonist is stunned by the violence and overhears one of the bystanders mentioning Clifton’s impressive punching ability. He wanders back to Harlem, unable to understand what had caused Clifton to leave the brotherhood for hawking racist dolls. He realizes that the Brotherhood has failed to bring about significant change to the neighborhood, and returns to his office still pondering Clifton’s life and death. In his office, he examines the doll and notices that Clifton had made it dance with an almost invisible string. He decides to put together a funeral for Clifton, hoping to use the event as a political opportunity to revive the brotherhood’s waning political influence. He attempts to contact the headquarters but receives no communication and so proceeds to organize the funeral on his own.

All the Harlem residents come for the march, while the funeral-goers carry black banners. The protagonist is deeply moved when he hears the crowd take up the singing of an old spiritual as the procession moves towards a large park. He realizes that he is expected to give a speech, but finds himself incapable of it as he tells them all to return home. His emotions move him to speak and he tries to establish Clifton as an individual above all else. He realizes that the brotherhood may be displeased with his speech but he remains uncaring. At the end of the speech, he walks through Harlem in the evening and feels the anger that he had stirred in people with his passionate speech. He remains determined to channel it into a positive direction.

The protagonist is summoned to the party headquarters for a committee meeting and realizes that the committee is against his actions of holding a funeral for Clifford. The protagonist attempts to explain his reasons, but the committee is unwilling to listen to him. They are all focused on the fact that Clifford had been selling Sambo dolls. Jack criticizes the protagonist for the use of the word “Personal Responsibility” and tells him that he was never hired to think when the protagonist explains that he had organized the funeral on his own since the committee had failed to respond to him. Jack further goes on to claim that their political action had never been about uncovering what the people want but rather telling them about what they should want. The protagonist compares Jack to an old white slave master which infuriates the man, and as he stands up one of his eyes falls out. He explains that he had lost his eye in the line of duty and that the protagonist has no idea about what kind of sacrifice is necessitated by duty.

Jack departs with the other committee members and tells the Narrator to go see Brother Hambro again to learn about the plans of the brotherhood. The protagonist heads into the streets and comes across a group of people being addressed by Ras, who notices the protagonist, and claims that the brotherhood was responsible for Clifton’s death as he demands them to take action. Some members of the crowd defend the protagonist as he retorts that Ras shouldn’t use Clifton’s death for his political gains. A couple of men follow the protagonist and beat him, but he is rescued by a bystander. The protagonist decides to disguise himself with a pair of dark glasses and a hat. He is constantly mistaken for a local goon called Rhinehart, who turns out to be a gambling bookie, pimp, and pastor. The protagonist embraces the personality of the mysterious Rhinehart and begins to see how the man flowed through life by making use of all opportunities around him. His disguise fools Ras, who rechristens himself as Ras the Destroyer, and it fools a close Brotherhood contact who the protagonist nearly ends up fighting as he is consumed with the idea of being Rhinehart.

He heads to Brother Hambro’s home and learns that the people of Harlem were being ‘sacrificed’ for the greater ambitions of the brotherhood. The protagonist argues that the people being sacrificed ought to at least be aware of their sacrifice, but he realizes that the people of Harlem mean little more than numbers on a ballot to the brotherhood. After leaving Brother Hambro, he decides that he will take down the organization from within using the charms of the newly discovered Rhinehart. He hopes to seduce Emma to penetrate the ranks of the brotherhood and prepares himself to do so at Jack’s upcoming birthday party.

The protagonist decides to use his grandfather’s strategy of destroying the brotherhood by ‘yessing’ them, and so lies to the committee when the situation in Harlem begins to turn violent. He tells them that violence is coming down and that he plans to organize a clean-up campaign with the help of newly recruited volunteers as he shows them a fake roll with all their supposed names. His plan to use Emma backfires, as he quickly realizes that she is too shrewd to be misled, but he decides to work his charms on the wife of another important brotherhood member. The woman called Sybil agrees to visit his apartment the following evening, but she proves to be of little use as she confesses to having little interest in politics. Sybil is determined to fulfill her own racist sexual fantasies as she asks him to help her act out her pretended rape. The protagonist plies her with drinks, and she eventually passes out. He lies to her and informs her that they had already acted out her fantasy when she awakens.

He receives a call from the brotherhood telling him about the terrible condition in Harlem and asking him to reach the neighborhood immediately. The protagonist is reluctant to do so, thinking that it might be a ploy to harm him, but ultimately heads to the neighborhood. The drunk Sybil attempts to go to the neighborhood with him, but he successfully manages to send her back home after several attempts. He arrives in Harlem to find men looting stores and the sounds of gunfire. The protagonist is struck by a stray bullet, but he is aided by a couple of young men who are looting the stores under the chaos of the riot. The protagonist learns that none of them are truly aware of what started the fire, but it could have been due to Clifton's help. The looters take the protagonist to be one of them due to the calfskin briefcase he carries, which they think is full of loot just like theirs. The protagonist is moved by their desire for violence, and so he aids them in burning down a tenement building as the leader of the gang claims that it is too deplorable a place for any child to be born.

He heads into the streets and overhears men discussing the violence as a part of the race riot, and he realizes that the brotherhood has instigated the violence in the neighborhood. The talk of sacrifice that Brother Hanbro had been having had been referring to this riot. The protagonist wants to head out and find Jack but instead comes across Ras the Destroyer at the head of his gang. Ras has transformed himself into the image of an African chieftain complete with shield, spear, and horse. Ras and his gang try to kill the protagonist who protests that he is no longer a member of the Brotherhood or a believer in their ideology. The gang members ignore his words, and the protagonist considers sacrificing himself but ultimately decides that he would not like to do so. He escapes Ras and his men as he tries to reach Mary’s home but he is soon accosted by three white men in plain clothes.

They wish to find out what he has in his briefcase, but the protagonist escapes into a manhole, yet he continues to mock the men. The angered men put the cover of the manhole and trap him in the darkness. He has to burn the contents of his briefcase to make light and he begins with his high school diploma. As he is burning the anonymous hate letter that had been sent to him earlier, the protagonist realizes that the handwriting had belonged to Jack. He screams out his anger as he realizes the depth of their deceit. The protagonist tells the reader that he has been in hibernation for a long time now, but that he hopes to return to the surface soon. He describes an encounter with Mr. Norton in the subway, the old man had appeared lost, and could not recall who the Protagonist had been. The protagonist had introduced himself as the old man’s fate, which had angered the small man greatly. The protagonist concludes that the answer to all of that strife had always been laid in love, as he describes his desire that his memoir gives the reader some comfort.

Analysis

The narrator has relations with two white women throughout the course of the book, and these interactions have been said to indicate the hardships that white women share with black men. The narrator's plan to exact revenge on the organization that has failed to treat him as an individual is to seduce a woman irrespective of her identity. The women that the narrator interacts with happen to be motivated by their own racist sexual fantasies, alas both of these repressed individuals may be looking for a means to be the perpetrators of the treatment they have had to endure. The novel has been described as a bildungsroman since it involves the narrator's pursuit of learning to define his identity. In this light, the narrator's violent conflict with Ras the destroyer is given a deeper meaning as the narrator chooses to escape instead of sacrificing himself as he feels that even his absurd existence is worth experiencing. The use of 'absurd' is interesting because it occupies a special place in the existential school of thought, which was at its heyday when the book was being written. This school of thought proposed that individuals ought to be able to carry on living with their lives with vigor and motivation despite being aware of the absurdity of the universe.