Racial Power Dynamics
In what we have read so far of Invisible Man, Ellison discusses the perceived power dynamic between blacks and whites. The Invisible Man at first feels when he is driving with Mr. Norton that he has to impress him and submit to his demands in order to get something from him. There is an idea that Ellison puts forward that in order for blacks to get ahead that have to lie and tell them what they want to hear instead of what is true. Through Dr. Bledsoe, Ellison explores this dynamic further. Bledsoe is the only one who is able to touch a white man. Bledsoe has created a place for himself on the level of white men. He has acheived this level by manipulating white people into giving him what he wants while making it seem like he is giving them what they want. While Bledsoe and other blacks are perceived to have less power at the time, Bledsoe argues that he is actually the one in power.
I think that Ellison does a particularly interesting job of exploring every sort of power dynamic between the races. I really think that Bledsoe represents power, but not the kind of power the grandfather of T.I.M would have approved. I think that the rest of this book will be the narrator trying to realize what true power really is. So far, we have seen him trying to reach the kind of power that Bledsoe but I feel like the narrator will soon learn that is not the “right” kind of power and the right direction for blacks.
I think the suppressed often outsmart their oppressors through compliance. In this case, Dr. Bledsoe attempts to take advantage of White men by putting up a facade of compliance. However, I do not think that the Invisible Man understands this. He is naive & takes everything at face value, without realizing that even Blacks are capable of turning on their race. I think the question of subversive rebellion, (of faking that you believe in something when you really don’t) is an important one in the novel because at various points we observe characters acting very differently from what one would expect. I am going to keep this idea in the back of my mind as I progress though the novel to see if I can identify whether subversive rebellion ultimately helps the oppressor or the oppressed.