Relationship between Narrator and Bledsoe

[Seth]

In my reading of Invisible Man, I noticed a relationship between Bledsoe and the Narrator. The narrator becomes part of the Brotherhood, but never mentions its governing philosophy, almost like the Narrator doesn't care much about it to explain. There is a point in the novel that the Narrator expressly worries about the damage something could do to his speaking career, and he never expresses any of his doubts about the Brotherhood philosophy directly to them, only his disagreement with their tactics.

I started to wonder whether Ellison was building a parallel between the Narrator and the kow-towing Bledsoe. It seems that the Narrator's focus at a certain point, rather than becoming a productive member of society is survival. That while he hates Bledsoe, in spite of himself he learns what must drive a man to become career motivated as a form of survival. To that end, I found it interesting that the moment he decides to kill Bledsoe is when he meets the Brotherhood, as though he is about to learn a hard lesson about what made Bledsoe what he was, and ultimately the Narrator forgets his plans to return to the South.

[Cymru]

I think you're right. Except that when one's safety isn't in question (up North for example, where there was no KKK) survival is substituted with ambition. Bledsoe may have done things in his way to survive (although, admittedly he did them to get ahead as well), while the Narrator realizes that to get ahead in the world he would have to adopt a pandering attitude similar to Bledsoe. It's this realization, to me, that is the crux of the entire novel. While race is certainly a factor -- up north, down south, back then and today -- cultural vicissitudes will often be used by individuals solely to advance their individual goals, desires, and needs. The narrator sees that racism has no practical connection to how people treat one another, because people of all races refuse to see each other as human beings. When he looks at people for who they are truly, and this includes himself, he becomes invisible.