University President vs. Lunatic: Who Would You Be?

        Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison draws important distinctions between two types of people. The first type of person is represented by Dr. A. Herbert Bledsoe, the President of Tuskegee University. Bledsoe represents black people who are willing to conform to the desires of the white people in charge in order to get ahead and gain social status. The second type of person is represented by the unnamed veteran (I will be calling him The Vet). He is essentially the opposite of Bledsoe in the way that he does not value white validation/success over being true to himself and his race. Throughout the book, The Narrator (the invisible man) is seeking to determine what he does and does not value, and is attempting to identify his values relative to the aforementioned two groups. He does so by learning from the people around him.

Bledsoe’s way of thinking can be described as cold and calculated. One of the best quotes demonstrating how Bledsoe thinks can be found in chapter 6, page 143: 

You’re nobody, son. You don’t exist — can’t you see that? The white folk tell everybody what to think — except men like me. I tell them … Shocks you, doesn't it? Well, that's the way it is. It's a nasty deal and I don't always like it myself. But you listen to me: I didn't make it, and I know that I can't change it. But I've made my place in it and I'll have every Negro in the country hanging on tree limbs by morning if it means staying where I am.

Bledsoe is the ultimate sellout. He is more than willing to sacrifice his dignity and the actual lives of others to maintain his power. He does not actually care about the education of the black people who attend his college, as he has fallen prey to his own greed and given up on advancing the common good of black people. Bledsoe is “visible”, but at what cost?

The Vet, on the other hand, has decided to go in a different direction with his life. Instead of thinking only of himself, he decides to use his life to help others (he is literally an army veteran). The Vet risked his life as a medic and even faced life-threatening circumstances at the hands of people on his team (“I returned to save life and I was refused,’ he said. ‘Ten men in masks drove me out from the city at midnight and beat me with whips for saving a human life. And I was forced to the utmost degradation because I possessed skilled hands and the belief that my knowledge could bring me dignity -- not wealth, only dignity -- and other men health!’") The Vet is not afraid of what people think of or will do to him, and tells people the honest truth. For example, at the Golden Day, The Vet explains to The Narrator and Mr. Norton (a white man) what is wrong with their way of acting, even though it was very socially unacceptable for a black man to tell a white man what he is doing wrong. The Vet confronts Mr. Norton by pointing out that his goals are to exploit black people for his own gain. The Vet further confronts The Narrator by saying he is not able to think deeply about things that happen to and are told to him (like a zombie, responding to stimuli but not in a complex way). This kind of confrontational behavior lands The Vet in an insane asylum. He is not actually insane, but rather is merely seen as insane by the white people for going against their norms (norms which are harmful to the black population). He risks his health and freedom for the sake of educating others about the social dynamics. In the insane asylum, The Vet is rendered “invisible”, but his impact is not.

In sum, people like Bledsoe become visible by condoning the maltreatment of the powerless, whereas people like The Vet become invisible by challenging those who mistreat the powerless. The Narrator is choosing between these two approaches to life as a black man.