Payton’s Reviews > Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man > Status Update

Brother Jack takes the narrator to a scene where he will have to present and speak about equality and the Brotherhood as an organization. He stands there nervous, and the smell of the room partially reminds him of a boy's lockerroom. He begins to worry that when he gets on the stage, he will not be himself. He questions his name. He doesn't feel like his legs are his own. He feels completely dissociated for a moment.

The narrator wakes up in a hospital, but at first, he is unaware of the fact that he is receiving treatment. He is acutely aware of this pounding, cramped feeling in his head and panics. The doctors hold him down, and after seeing a mirror and light, he is aware that he is receiving some treatment. He is slightly relieved but still panicked by the pain he is enduring in the hospital. The doctors have a "cure".

The narrator talks to the Vet on the bus, and the Vet offers a slimmer of advice to him, talking consistently to the bus driver named Crenshaw. On the bus ride, the narrator dreams of being obedient to his new superior in his job. He believes that they will shower Bledsoe with favorable feedback about him. Eventually, he thinks, he will return to college and become a model for the whole student body.

The narrator continues his meeting with Dr. Bledsoe. There, Dr. Bledsoe allows him to see that the white men will likely shame him for what he did. They might spew lies, but they have access to resources like the news and radio to make their lies seem true even if the narrator proved them wrong. His truth would become their truth. Then, Bledsoe tells the narrator he should travel to New York for the summer for a job.

Chapter 6: The narrator returned to the college and entered Dr. Bledsoe's office. Bledsoe recounts the story with him, and he is furious. He remarks on how stupid the narrator is, confused as to why he would not lie to the trustee. The narrator, of course, believed that lying to Mr. Norton might get him into more trouble than not. However, Bledsoe disagrees, insinuating that the whole institution is built on lies.

The narrator and founder of the campus continue driving down the road. The narrator takes the founder to a more rural side of campus, driving past a cabin. The founder is fascinated. The narrator describes them as cabins built during slavery times. He also explains that the people there do not like the university, and the founder is dumbfounded by this notion. He cannot understand why they would not.

The narrator drives an older, rich white man around his college campus. The white man is a founder of it, and he goes into great detail talking about how he founded the campus. He also says that the narrator is his fate. The narrator is confused by this, asking how he could possibly tell his man his fate. The white man also says that his daughter played a hand in opening the school, but it's not clear what occurred.