1. Themes in Invisible Man

2. Invisibility Paradox Reason for joining Brotherhood Grandfather
Powerlessness
Freedom
Reason for joining Brotherhood
Grandfather
“…overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins…”

3. Blindness Speeches center on regaining sight Homer A. Barbee
Preaches obedience
Actually blind
Brother Jack
One fake-eye
Blindness leads to Invisibility

4. Changing Identity and Disguises
Rinehart
“Rine the runner and Rine the gambler and Rine the briber and Rine the lover and Rinehart the Reverend.”
Bledsoe
The Narrator

5. Imprisonment Brother Tarp’s Leg Chain Hospital Machine
“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.”
Trapped by the Brotherhood
“Keep This Nigger-Boy Running.”

6. Stereotyping and the loss of Identity
Ideas of how blacks should behave
Dr. Bledsoe
Brother Jack
Sybil and the unnamed married woman
Fighting Stereotypes with Stereotypes
Ras the Exhorter
The narrator’s treatment of women

7. Responsibility v. Ambitions
The narrator’s feelings of responsibility for the “fate of his race”
Obedience to the Brotherhood
Personal advancement using the Brotherhood
Goals of becoming a public speaker