The Puppet and the Puppet Master

The topic the narrator discusses most extensively in the prologue is invisibility, more specifically how he realized it and used it to his advantage. Fast forward to chapter 20 in which the narrator has arrived back in Harlem. He decides to go buy new shoes and on his way back, encounters Tod Clifton, who was said to be missing. However, instead of seeing Clifton, the first thing the narrator notices is the Sambo doll that Clifton is trying to sell. He has multiple emotional and physical reactions to the doll itself and goes as far as to spit on the doll. When the narrator finally looks up and recognizes Clifton, he cannot believe his eyes. Clifton gives a strange response by smirking at the narrator while continuing trying to sell the doll. The passage describes it specifically as a "contemptuous smile". Why was Clifton smirking at the narrator? 

I believe that this is a symbolic representation of Clifton's newfound invisibility. Like he said during the scene with Ras, he has "fallen outside of history" and become something new. I interpreted the doll as what the people see as Clifton: just another black person who entertains. This fits the narrator's description of invisibility from the prologue almost perfectly, and ironically, it is the narrator who doesn't notice Clifton's invisibility. The smirk that Clifton gives to the narrator is a mocking smile because Clifton has finally realized his invisibility and he knows that the narrator is still trapped without this knowledge. Clifton has put forth this doll that people, including the narrator, see and by making this new "persona", he has effectively made himself invisible. Clifton has become his own puppet master. 

Was this scene meant to be a learning experience for the narrator? As seen in many scenes before, the narrator gathers the most useful information from unexpected sources and perhaps this is the beginning of the end of the narrator's story of his recognition of invisibility. 

The Battle Royal and the Hospital

Ellison has a habit of repeating themes and patterns throughout the novel. An important one that should be acknowledged is how the eleventh chapter mirrors the first. The first chapter covers the events of the Battle Royal while the eleventh is about the narrator’s time at the factory hospital after being “treated”. Both chapters have multiple similar aspects but with a different perspective of the narrator.

In chapter one, the narrator’s grandfather figuratively opens the narrator’s eyes unsuccessfully by revealing his secret. In the next scene, he is said to be blinded by the naked dancing woman. Similarly in chapter eleven, the narrator is physically woken up after being hurt in the previous chapter and sees the “bright third eye that glowed from the center of his forehead” (Wright 231). In both chapters, the narrator is being spectated by random people and is watched like some kind of experiment or entertainment. However, the narrator seems more aware of this in the eleventh chapter than in the first.

Another similarity is with the spectators themselves. In the Battle Royal, the spectators yelled conflicting orders at the black people to both look and not look at the dancing woman. In the hospital, the doctors give him many strange orders and questions, with some yelling and some just speaking to him. One of the most striking similarities is with the electricity. In the battle royal, the narrator is shocked by the electrified rug and sees another person “dancing” while being shocked on it. Almost directly mirroring this scene, the narrator is electrocuted and the doctors talk about how he is dancing and has good rhythm.

The narrator comes out of each of these experiences differently. In the first chapter, he receives his scholarship after answering correctly to the white peoples’ questions. In the eleventh chapter, the narrator leaves with a new personality but doesn’t answer the doctors’ questions correctly and takes it as more of a joke.

I probably missed some other references. If you find another or thought any of these were interesting, please comment your thoughts!