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At the beginning of the novel, the narrator has the job of driving one of the white trustees around town. The narrator takes Mr. Norton to the Trueblood household where Mr. Norton learns of the reasoning for his banishment from society. While he was sleeping one night, Jim Trueblood, the father, rapes his teenage daughter and impregnates her. The satire in his name relates to the incest that happens in the family. Blood spreads throughout water quickly, so the news about the rape of his daughter spread quickly throughout the town. Because of this, the white people view the black people negatively. The town was trying to make the Truebloods leave because they were "a disgrace" (Ellison, pg. 52) to the black members of the town.

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At the beginning of this novel, the narrator has to drive one of the white trustees of the school. Mr. Norton becomes ill and needs a drink from the bar. The nearest bar is the Golden Day which the narrator immediately objects to taking him to; Mr. Norton cannot make it to another bar, so the narrator is forced to stop. The reader will probably assume that the Golden Day will be full of working-class citizens because of the positive meaning behind the word "golden", but the bar was full of "women in short, tight-fitting, stiffly starched gingham aprons" (Ellison, pg. 74) and mentally-handicapped war veterans who got out of the mental hospital. Because Mr. Norton was attacked both physically and with insults, the narrator was kicked out of the school by Dr. Bledsoe and forced to move North to find work.

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Dr. Bledsoe is the president of the university that the narrator gets kicked out of. He sends the narrator off to New York with seven letters of recommendation in order to get him started off with a job. In reality, Bledsoe is the type of character who would do anything in his power to protect his own position and reputation at his job as an assimilated African American president of a university. His determination comes to a point where he’d,” have every Negro in the country hanging on tree limbs,” (Ellison, p.143) if it means keeping his position at the time. Bledsoe’s name resembles the word ‘blood’ as he continues to bleed over the narrator’s thoughts in order to keep him running, which corrupts him of discovering his own identity. Ellison includes Bledsoe in the novel to provide contrast between the assimilated African American and the narrator who hasn’t necessarily discovered his own true self. Bledsoe’s letters corrupt the narrator and prevents him from moving on from the darkness that Bledsoe had put him in. This could resemble how much influence the white society had on African Americans to the point where they end up turning their own backs on their race which is an idea that is also shown with the character of Ras.

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The novel starts off in Greenwood, SC which is in the South. The already give the narrator a sense of false hope when he was a teenager, with the white promising a speech to relatively important white men claiming that,“he is the smartest boy [they’ve] got out there in Greenwood,” (Ellison, p. 29). Before he does so he must participate in a battle royal event for the entertainments of the whites. The narrator loses in the last round, and afterwards he delievered the speech;  the whites just laughed at his speech ignoring him. The theme of Greenwood is that the blacks are poor and unsuccessful while the whites are wealthy. The young black men however are given scholarships to a university in Greenwood, but it is an education of false hope.

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Liberty Paints was the first company that the narrator of Invisible Man had worked for since he had moved to New York. The narrator was introduced to the brand of paint called Optic White, which is supposedly, "the purest white that can be found," (Ellison, p.202). His boss shows the narrator how to create the right color of white of the paint. This process would include dropping black drops into the solution, also known as dope, into the white paint. Although mixing the black drops would appear as if it would darken the white, it ironically gets taken over by the white paint as it is," [stirred] until it disappears," (Ellison, p.200). The way that the white paint consumes the black drops would represent the American white race’s dominance over the African American race. Ellison includes such a satirical matter to exaggerate the way whites dominate the black community, even though American society would not be the way it would be without the black race.

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After the narrator’s operation, his fatigue leads to the discovery of,”Miss Mary [who’s] always helping somebody,” (Ellison, p.253). Mary Rambo is an African American woman who takes the narrator into her home, and acts like a mother figure for the narrator. She watches over the narrator and provides him with all the basic necessities and more that he needs until he gets back on his feet. Mary Rambo could be seen and compared to the biblical figure Virgin Mary, who’s Jesus Christ’s mother. Also the name Rambo resembles the name of the dolls that Clifton was selling. The Sambo dolls were dolls that resembled the stereotypical idea of an African American who was seen as nothing but entertainers.

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The Chthonian Club is the place where the narrator officially becomes a member of the Brotherhood. He is confused as to why the decor in the club is so nice, but the men's clothing makes them look so poor. A woman named Emma asks Brother Jack if the narrator is black enough to be in the Brotherhood which shows the racism in the group. The satire of the Chthonian Club starts before the narrator even walks in the door. The owl door knocker produced "an icy peal of clear chimes" (Ellison, pg. 300) because it ended up being a doorbell. This is foreshadowing to the fact that the Brotherhood ends up being completely different than the narrator expected it to be. According to Dictionary.com, the term chthonian relates to the underworld. This is satire because it correlates the Brotherhood with Hell and could produce foreshadowing for the reader.

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Tod Clifton is a black man who is a member of the Brotherhood. Ras the Exhorter explained to Clifton that the Brotherhood is corrupt and that the whites were the ones making the grand decisions. Clifton realizes this issue and leaves the Brotherhood. Clifton began selling Sambo dolls, but the ironic thing is that sambo dolls are supposed to mock African-Americans in which African-Americans  are only seen as entertainers; however Clifton is black. He made the doll dance by using a black string invisible to the crowd. Clifton gets shot by the police, but another satirical reference is that “Tod” means “death” in German. While Tod was selling his Sambo doll, he was approached by a cop, but little did he know,"the cop would be Clifton's historian, his judge, his witness, and his executioner," (Ellison, p.439).

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Brother Tobitt is a white man who is a part of the Brotherhood, however, he is married to a black woman. Tobitt feels as though he is credible to speak about black people as he speaks about Clifton’s funeral to the narrator. He claims that Clifton is "in touch with God, The Black God." (Ellison, Pg. 471) The Tobitt felt offended when the narrator sardonically criticizes Tobitt on how credible he is to speak upon the black people if he is white. He calls Tobbit "Brother Twobits," twobits means worthless and insignificant.

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Brother Wrestrum is also a member of the Brotherhood. He criticizes the narrator’s speech he delivered to the people of Harlem “charging this man with using the Brotherhood movement to advance his own selfish interests.” (Pg. 400) Wrestrum also claims that “He’s trying to give people the idea that he’s the whole Brotherhood movement.” (Pg. 400). Wrestrum is convincing to the Brotherhood that the narrator is corrupt and a phony; the Brotherhood does send the narrator away to downtown on another quest to speak about women’s rights. Wrestrum is the first brother in the Brotherhood to have negative thoughts towards the narrator; this connects because “wrest” means to take something away from someone.

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The narrator meets Ras after leaving a Brotherhood meeting. Ras is a powerful black man who is viewed as rebellious and almost as a threat to society. Ras believes that the reason why white men are so powerful is because the black people let them, and they don't stand up for themselves. The satire in Ras's name is that his character's main argument is racial equality. Because of the brainwashing done by the Brotherhood, the narrator sees Ras as ridiculous. Ras tries to enlighten the narrator about the Brotherhood by saying that the white brothers "don't have to be allies with no black people" (Ellison, pg. 375) which the narrator ignores.

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After the narrator confronts Ras and his men, he escapes and attempts to disguise himself. His intent was to be invisible, yet ironically he ended up being mistaken for somebody else who’s known as Bliss Proteus Rinehart who ends up being the complete opposite. As the narrator approaches other strangers who misidentify him as Rinehart he learns that he’s a gambler, a pimp, and a reverend. As Rinehart is known to fill such occupations, he fits the satirical profile that Ellison establishes. Proteus, also Rinehart’s middle name, is a sea god in Greek mythology who is known to morph into several life forms. This would exaggerate and provide deeper meaning to Rinehart’s ability to fill these several occupations and identities.

“And sitting there trembling I caught a brief glimpse of the possibilities posed by Rinehart’s multiple personalities and turned away,” (Ellison, p.499)

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To watch the entire documentary, to read background information and to order DVDs, visit: http://newsreel.org/video/RALPH-ELLISON An introduction to the complex author of Invisible Man including the first-ever dramatized scenes from that book.