One thing that I’ve been thinking about a lot is the narrator's development from the submissive, naïve kid he was at the beginning of the book to where he is now. We talked in class about whether or not he has truly discovered invisibility, or if he’s still being “kept running” by someone or something and I honestly don’t think there’s one right answer. On the one hand, I think he genuinely seems to have developed more of a consciousness and one scene where this is evident is the one where he talks to Hambro about the Brotherhood’s real intentions. When he’s told that they are basically abandoning Harlem, the narrator gets genuinely upset in a way that suggests a deeper consciousness, at least compared to the beginning of the book. He questions Hambro – he asks why. Why does it have to be Harlem that they’re “sacrificing?” One line that stood out to me was, after Hambro says “It’s inevitable that some must make greater sacrifices than others…” and the narrator replies, “That ‘some’ being my people…” At the beginning of the book the narrator is clearly uncomfortable when Norton lumps him into a group with “his people,” almost like how in Native Son, Jan and Mary repeatedly ask Bigger about his “people” referring to all black people. Now, not only is he identifying with his “people,” but he’s sticking up for them and finally recognizing how they have consistently been pushed aside or treated as second-rate citizens. I think this section is huge, because the narrator is expressing a level of consciousness specifically in terms of the injustices of race in America. 

Also, his self-claimed discovery of invisibility seems pretty promising. His grandfather’s advice finally clicks with him and he decides to “yes” the Brotherhood to death. Compare it to the battle royal scene; in that scene he does not frame his persistence to follow through with his speech as “yessing” – it’s not like he’s humoring the white people or pretending to go along with it. He genuinely believes it’s the right thing to do. This shift is incredibly significant, because it means that the narrator has actually begun to recognize a problem with the Brotherhood and the way that he has been treated. The “yes” is important because it is in opposition to some “no.” In other words, there must first be a recognizable “no” – something which is not right, something that he does not agree with – in order for the “yes” to have such a rebellious significance. So, just the fact that he calls it “yessing” in the first place proves that he has developed a certain consciousness.

On the other hand though, this “yessing” is something that I am not entirely comfortable with because even though he claimed to be undermining them secretly, I’m not sure it really counts if it’s entirely in your head. Sure, it’s great to understand something is wrong, but unless you speak up or take actions to change it, you’re really just being complicit. If the narrator had explained some secret plan that his “yessing” was leading up to, or described any concrete actions he was taking to undermine the Brotherhood it might have been different, but he didn’t, which made the whole thing seem pretty useless to me. It’s almost like the scene with Maceo during the Rinehart situation – even though the narrator knew at heart that he wasn’t Rinehart and that Maceo was his friend, he started to act through Rinehart to the extent that even his awareness of his true identity became almost meaningless. The suggestion is that there's a fine line between what we actually think and what we are capable of pretending to think.

Update: In Chapter 24 the narrator writes, “I could see it now, see it clearly and in growing magnitude… And I had helped, had been a tool. A tool just at the very moment I had thought myself free. By pretending to agree I had indeed agreed, had made myself responsible..” So it seems like mr. narrator has finally realized his mistake and that makes me quite happy