The Narrator’s “House in the World”

House in the World
I’m looking for a house
In the world
Where the white shadows
Will not fall.

There is no such house,
Dark brothers,
No such house
At all.

— Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes’ “House in the World” is a powerful poem with two distinct voices in the different stanzas. During Isandro’s recitation we discussed how the first stanza features a young black voice looking for a place of comfort free of white culture’s influence and oppression. The second stanza acts as the voice of an older black voice warning the younger individual that he has searched every corner of the world but has found there is no place free of white influence. The discussion prompted me to look into how this idea applied to the narrator in Invisible Man. I looked into how the narrator’s hope that he can gain some power in the world without any white influence is gradually diminished through the novel. The voice in the first stanza is like the narrator at the beginning of Invisible Man, hopeful and ambitious, but the narrator by the end of the novel is like the voice in the second stanza, realizing the harsh realities and bleakness of the world.

In the beginning of Invisible Man, the narrator is quite naïve. In the battle royale scene in Chapter 1, the narrator is pushed around and does not initiate any actions of his own. In class we talked about how the narrator is almost in a dreamlike state where he is not fully aware of his surroundings and he is not fully aware of his own actions. This relates to how he does not really react when the white men abuse him for their entertainment because of his race. Finally, when he receives the scholarship for the college, he is still hopeful for a new beginning and the prospect of the success the education can lead him towards.

Once the narrator is at the university he ignores the signs of racism that are even present at the university. He is oblivious enough to take Mr. Norton on a path that leads them Mr. Trueblood. The first signs of the narrator realizing the impossibility of a black man finding success without white influence is when he sees Mr. Bledsoe’s mask. When the narrator first meets Mr. Bledsoe he holds a great respect for him and sees him as a role mode, but this image is shattered when he realizes Mr. Bledsoe’s appearance is all a front. When the narrator sees Mr. Bledsoe lose his temper with him, then immediately reconstruct his appearance to talk to Mr. Norton, the narrator sees that Mr. Bledsoe has built his power and success by essentially kissing up to the white men with power. Despite this slight discouragement, the narrator is still hopeful to find his place when he is sent to the north.

 The narrator’s new attitude is apparent when he is skeptical of Brockway. When the narrator meets Brockway he is exposed to a black man who has a false sense of ownership and power but who lives in a constant state of paranoia. Brockway is completely under the control of the white executives of the company and constantly afraid for his job. This experience grows the narrator’s awareness of the realities of a black man’s life in a white world.

When the narrator meets the Brotherhood, he is more cautious than ever before, even rejecting the job offer at first. He eventually accepts their job offer and pours his life into working for the organization. He truly believes that he can work hard and succeed within the organization, even remarking that the Brotherhood is the one organization in America where he could rise to the top. After a long period of time he realizes that he does not hold any importance in the organization and the white men have complete power over him. He is used by the Brotherhood as a face for their organization even telling him at one point that he is paid to talk not to think. The Brotherhood controls him so completely that at one point he is moved away from his work entirely to work on women’s rights. The organization he devotes his life to eventually turns out to be a scam that exploits the black community of Harlem.

This ending takes us full circle to the prologue where we meet the narrator after the events of the entire novel have taken place. The narrator has embraced his invisibility and now appears to live apart from society, on his own. At each step through the book, the narrator’s aspirations are shrunken as he learns the extent of white culture’s influence. In the very beginning of the book the narrator believes he can get an education and hold a position of significance. Next he believes that even if he cannot get an education he can hold a job of significance, but after this sense of hope is erased, he holds onto his hope. He believes that a specific organization supposedly meant to work for racial equally is where he is destined to make a difference, but even that is filled with white men with power exploiting the black population. The narrator realizes there is no place where he can hold power without white culture overpowering him in a similar way that the second voice in “House in the World” realizes there is no place where he can find peace without white culture’s contamination. It is arguable that even when the narrator is supposedly invisible and removed from society, he is under the control of white people in power. The narrator is obsessed with this fight against Monopolated Light & Power. He dedicates all his time wiring light bulbs to waste the company’s power, yet it makes no difference to the company. Although this waste of their energy may appear as a small victory for the narrator, even here, his life is run by the executives of a company who are not even aware of his existence.

Liberty Paints as an Extended Metaphor for Racial Inequality

In class we discussed the obscurity of Liberty paints and what made it different from a normal paint factory. We explored Liberty paints as an extended metaphor for racial inequality and whitewashing. I chose to look deeper into this and find more instances this metaphor is apparent.

            Ellison uses symbolism from the very start of Chapter 10. The fog is mentioned three times in the first two paragraphs of the chapter. The fog interferes with his vision, but he is still able to see the massive sign that is on display. The name of the factory, “Liberty paints” and the fog mean that in a sense the narrator does not have a clear view of liberty. This suggests that liberty in America has been distorted and that as a black man he does not truly have liberty.

Despite the fog, the narrator can see a sign with the motto of the factory, “KEEP AMERICA PURE WITH LIBERTY PAINTS” (196). This is more important when the specialty of the factory, white paint, is revealed. The whiteness is seen as pure and the fact that the pain is used all across the country, especially in government buildings, shows the whitewashing all across America, especially the white political power.

The process behind the missing of the paint itself is quite interesting. To get the famous white color, the factory needs to add 10 drops of a black liquid. The white paint covering the black liquid represents the power and privilege white people have in society, but the brilliance of the white paint once it covers the black liquid represents how white people oppress and take credit for the accomplishments of black people in order to gain their power and privilege. This idea is again exemplified through Brockway role in the factory. Although the narrator seems skeptical of Brockway, Ellison presents the idea that Brockway is integral to the company. Despite his importance, he is cast aside to the depths of the company. He is insecure about his job and the rest of the people in the factory do not take him seriously.

Chapter 10 illustrates the struggle to reach racial equality. In the chapter the narrator faces less racism at first glance, but Ellison uses subtle signs of racism to question the progress towards racial equality. The narrator has just moved to the north where there is supposedly better race relations, but there are still signs of racism everywhere. Ellison plays with liberty, one of the most basic rights of Americans, and questions whether black people have liberty by filling the chapter with symbols of white oppression and privilege.

Invisible Man and the Narrator's Oblivion

In Invisible Man, the narrator worries that all African-Americans will be stereotyped by the actions of just one individual. When he drives Mr. Norton around, he is worried that the people Mr. Norton sees will influence his opinion of African-Americans. The narrator is anxious to leave Mr. Trueblood’s farm because he does not want Mr. Norton to hear Mr. Trueblood’s story. While Mr. Trueblood is talking he thinks, “How can he tell this to white men, I thought, when he knows they’ll say that all Negroes do such things? I looked at the floor, a red mist of anguish before my eyes.” (58). For this same reason, the narrator does not Mr. Norton to enter the Golden Day and see the shell shocked veterans. Although he is worried about the misrepresentation of African-American men, he does not notice the similarities between the white characters he meets.

In Chapter 1 of the novel, the narrator is humiliated before a large group of white men, including the school superintendent who he refers to as “All of the town’s big shots” (17). He is forced to fight other African-American men, but his suffering is treated as entertainment by the white men. The narrator, beaten and exhausted, then delivers his speech where he is ridiculed and humiliated. Once he has finished, he is given a scholarship to the state college for Negroes.

In Chapter 2 of the novel, the narrator accompanies Mr. Norton and listens to Mr. Trueblood tell Mr. Norton about how he impregnated his own daughter. The story has an odd effect on Mr. Norton, most likely because of his relationship with his daughter who passed away. After the story, Mr. Norton gives Mr. Trueblood 100 dollars, which confuses the narrator. He fails to see the similarity between his experience and Mr. Trueblood’s storytelling.

 At first glance, Mr. Trueblood’s storytelling does not seem to play the same role as the narrator’s fighting and speech, but Mr. Norton’s shock seems to be a result of his obsession with his daughter rather than his disapproval and disgust of Mr. Trueblood’s actions. He is intrigued and exclaims, “You did and are unharmed!” and “You have looked upon chaos and are not destroyed!” (51). He refuses to leave even when the narrator is uncomfortable and prompts him to go, “I looked at Mr. Norton and stood up, thinking it was a good time to leave; but he was listening to Trueblood so intensely he didn’t see me”. Mr. Norton and the superintendent both view the humiliation of the African-American men as a source for their own entertainment. Not only would they pay for things like this, Mr. Trueblood remarks that the Sheriff and other white men would give him food, drink, and tobacco to tell them the story.

All the white men in the novel share the same perception on the uniformity of African-American men. In Chapter 1, the narrator expresses he feels superior to the other “tough guys” in the elevator with him. Although the narrator notices the difference between him and the other men, the white men use them for the same purpose: their entertainment. Mr. Norton shares these views although they manifest subtly. He speaks on the founder’s role in the college as “a king, or in a sense, of a God” (45). The vet recognizes this and comments Mr. Norton views the narrator as “a mark on the scoreboard of your achievement, a thing and not a man, a child, or even less – a black amorphous thing” (95). The narrator dismisses what the vet has to say and stays under the control of white men who, in a sense, keep him running.