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  Irving Howe claims that Invisible Man fails as a protest novel, and a lot of his complaints stem from the narrator’s political disengagement and the lack of a clear resolution to the problems depicted throughout the novel. Initially I adamantly disagreed with this notion, and thought that Invisible Man has no obligation to provide solutions. The book on its own can help to educate and influence it’s readers on the black experience without directly outlining the exact issues. Throughout the novel the narrator feels like he hasn’t found where he truly belongs and struggles with his conflicting Southern and Northern identities. This is a feeling that was shared between a lot of African American people likely at the time, and even now. The book illustrates society against the narrator, with people constantly telling him what he can and cannot do (linking back to themes of Native Son), and all the examples of black power (Bledsoe, Brockway) existing within the rules of white people, ...

 The majority of our recent in-class discussions have been about The Brotherhood. Specifically, all of the contradictions within their methodology and just the off-putting feeling they give us as readers. It’s easy to tell that something is not right with the organization, but their agenda seems to frequently change and it never makes much sense. This is because the Brotherhood is most likely a cult, who uses their public notoriety as an activist organization to lure in emotionally vulnerable people to help them gain arbitrary power.  When cults recruit new members, they focus their attention on the most susceptible people, including those who are extremely stressed, have little to no family connections, and are struggling financially. When brother Jack first sees the narrator he is in a state of emotional turmoil and inciting a riot from a large crowd. In the narrator’s speech he gives conflicting statements, saying they should not be attacking the individual policemen, but...