In Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the narrator’s grandfather’s advice does not serve him particularly well yet it still takes a great deal of time and bad experiences before he realizes how flawed it is. For example, when he is at college, he makes the mistake of following Mr. Norton’s advice that they go out to the sharecropper’s shacks and then to the brothel. Dr. Bledsoe gets incredibly angry at his naïve nature and is thus expelled. The narrator in Invisible Man does not comprehend fully what has happened and why, especially since he thought he was living up to the role of being the servile black man. When Bledsoe questions him he says, “Lie sir? Lie to him, lie to a trustee, sir?” It will be a while before he comes to understand how adhering to the role causes him the greatest damage.

Dr. Bledsoe offers the narrator some more advice, this time expanding (albeit in a more sinister way) on what his grandfather said about playing the part. Bledsoe admits to playing the role and to emphasize his points, slips into master/slave language saying in one of the important quotes from “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, “That’s my life, telling white folk how to think about the things I know about…It’s a nasty deal and I don’t always like it myself…But I’ve made my place in it and I’ll have every Negro in the country hanging on tree limbs by morning if it means staying where I am.” In other words, he is stating that it is possible to achieve great things by being subservient to white demands, even if it means betraying one’s self. This seems to stick in the narrator’s mind but not long after, he experiences his awakening after the hospital incident.

During the epilogue of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the narrator tells the reader that “I became ill of affirmation, of saying ‘yes’ against the nay-saying of my stomach—not to mention my brain” (Epilogue). This is after the experiences detailed above as well as those he encountered during his time in the city. Even though when he first met up with Brother Jack he is slightly skeptical about what will happen, it is not until he has fully played a role that he realizes that he is following too closely his grandfather’s advice. He ignores facts that the reader of Invisible Man easily sees that indicate he is being used as an icon or stereotype rather than being valued for who he is. For instance, when it is seen that he will be making speeches, a woman wonders if he is “dark enough” to be a representative speaker. Furthermore, when thenarrator of “Invisible Man” forgets what he is supposed to say according to the pamphlets of the Brotherhood’s rhetoric and improvises, he is scolded. In other words, he is continually being used as a puppet or tool because with his grandfather’s advice, this is the only option he has. When Brother Jack says in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison that “Our [the brotherhood’s] job is not to ask them what they think but to tell them!” he is almost admitting to the narrator how narrow minded his philosophy is and how the individual is not valued. Still, the narrator goes along with things until the situation reaches a critical point and he has nowhere else to go.

The fact that the narrator of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison must retreat underground before he is able to clearly realize himself fully and the inherent problems with the advice of his grandfather and Dr. Bledsoe is significant. In the outside world he is invisible and thus becomes all people at once while remaining nobody. The fact that he can easily be viewed in any number of roles marks his status as someone who only exists in outside manifestations rather than in substance. While in the outside world and faced with the decision between conforming to stereotypes versus acting of his own accord, he is particularly susceptible to influences because of the ingrained logic and advice of his grandfather and the example of Dr. Bledsoe. Although he realizes that he has the habit of acting the part, it is only through isolation that he can avoid this happening again.

Other essays and articles in the Literature Archives related to this topic include : Infinite Impossibilities and the Narrator of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison