The Role of Brockway in Invisible Man
Lucius Brockway is a strange character in Invisible Man. He seems to be the heart of Liberty Paints. He makes clear that, without him, Liberty Paints would not work. He also seems to have a fairly inspiring history, having worked his way up the system. Despite this, he seems very uncertain of his position in his company. He is paranoid, and he is constantly worried about losing his job to the narrator, or to the union. He is very proud of his story, but at the same time he doesn't really seem comfortable with his position. He has climbed to the top of the company, but he is still stuck at the very bottom basement. In these ways, he is a very ironic character, which makes it hard to determine his role in the novel. Is his paranoia or his pride more important to his character, for example. On one hand, you could consider his pride more important, and see him as the embodiment of white nationalism, keeping America "pure", and concealing all that is dark and black with a coat of his white paint. On the other hand, you can focus more on his paranoia, he can be a symbol of the fear that the upper class secretly holds of the common people. He seeks, out of fear, to conceal the evils that he and his peers have committed, painting over the monuments, and converting black chemicals into a blinding white. In these ways, I see Brockway as the embodiment of "whiteness" as a whole, with its many oxymorons associated with him as well.
In my opinion, Brockway serves to fill both the roles you mentioned. He represents the underground force of blacks, holding up the infrastructure to help the white men succeed, and the fear of this power which the white men have. They know that if they try to replace this black infrastructure with anything else, it will fail as in the example from the novel where the engineer comes down to replace Brockway but fails. He also represents the efforts of white nationalism, using the black workforce to make America whiter, very ironic as you pointed out. I don't think he only serves one of these purposes, but both at the same time, a testament to the great writing of Ellison.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very accurate description of Brockway. I saw him as a character similar to the veteran doctor that the narrator encounters at the Golden Day and on the train to Harlem, with hints of Bledsoe in him. Both Brockway and the vet are characters that have talent, but are figuratively invisible due to their skin color, and don't get any recognition for their talent. He reminds me of Bledsoe because of his attitude that he keeps Liberty Paints running, and that he started from the bottom to get where he is.
ReplyDeleteI think brockway is a fascinating character. I was confused why the narrator has such a bad first impression of him. At first I was impressed with Brockway's story of learning all these engineering skills, but there is a lot more going on here in terms of the white/black symbolism that could affect the narrator.
ReplyDeleteGoing along with your post and some of the comments already commented, I think that you are spot on with your analysis of who and what does Lucius stand for metaphorically in the novel. Another way to look at Brockway though, is through the eyes of the narrator. I took his initial negative reaction to Brockway as perhaps due to two different factors. One of these being his suspiciously close demeanor and philosophy to Blensoe. It is important to remember that at this moment, the narrator's goal is to kill Blensoe. It is possible that he saw Brockway's "white is right" and "power is power" philosophy as reminiscent of Blensoe, and despised him because of this. Another factor I thought of that could have contributed to it, was the stark contrast in class between Blensoe and Brockway. While both are very similar, both physically and philosophically, the huge difference between the two is their classes. I wonder if part of the narrator's initial dislike of Brockway, (compared to his immediate respect for Blensoe) had to do with the fact that Brockway is of the lower class. I wonder if at this point in the novel, he still sees himself as "college boy" and "better than" lower class people. Especially lower class black people. An example that helps prove this is the disgust that he had when meeting Trueblood, and the veterans. Everytime, he hopes to distinguish himself as better and different from these other black people that do not fit the "status norm" or what he sees as a "prize black person" perhaps. (I do also not think it is by coincidence that all of the black people for the most part that he seems to distance himself from are lower class). Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI think it is hilarious that Brockway, a relatively poor black man, is the symbol of white nationalism and the upper class in this book. This is another one of Ellison’s comedic instances, similar to the scene in the Golden Day. It’s just so absolutely absurd that it becomes hilarious. What makes it even better is that we then realize that instances like this exist in the real world. There are white supremacists who aren’t white, and there are lower class people who support the monopoly of the upper class. I think Ellison’s humor in this book adds an extra dimension that forces readers to confront the reality of the world in a very effective way. Instead of using Wright’s form of painting something super realistic and horrible and forcing the reader to confront it that way, he creates laughably outrageous instances that when the reader looks back on will drive home how similar things happening in the world today would seem completely outrageous to someone who hasn’t grown up with it being the norm.
ReplyDeleteI think that Brockway primarily serves as a character similar to Bledsoe. They both believe that they are the ones who are really in control despite both not having a powerful appearance in the eyes of authority. For Brockway, he is the lone worker in his underground factory and the bosses of Liberty Paints likely don't have much interaction with him and therefore don't respect him very much. Similarly, Bledsoe constantly has to suck up to the white men above him so even though he is at the top of the college, he still is below the white men. Despite both not being in charge, they feel like they have a lot of control over how their respective organizations operate. They also both have a history of sending people away. Bledsoe sent the narrator away and Brockway says that he sends lots of apprentices and helpers away. This leads to a contrast between the two, however, because where Bledsoe sent the narrator away, Brockway actually sort of accepted the narrator. When the narrator arrived at Liberty Paints he was immediately pushed away and thought to be incompetent, but after some talking between the Brockway and the narrator they actually seemed to be making some headway. This all ends once Brockway and the narrator fight, but up until this point the two seemed to maybe have a sort of understanding. What, if anything, do you think this contrast between Bledsoe and Brockway means?
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting point; I also find Brockway to be a very ironic character. He has a kind of Bledsoe-like way of thinking and believes himself to be the true power behind the organization he works for, similarly to Bledsoe at the university. On the topic of irony, it's strange that this character is depicted making the "whitest" paint in the world. Does he realize the symbolic significance of the white paint used to cover everything up? A small detail included in the story is how a black substance is put into the paint to turn it white. Could this mean that behind all the white powers is the hidden black influence?
ReplyDeleteI think you're right that Brockway is quite ironic - he appears to be a "yay white people" guy until the mask is pulled off following his scuffle with the narrator and he goes on a tangent about how he's the one running the show, even if he's never given a chance in the spotlight. He's a lot like Bledsoe - he seems super professional until people threaten to go on strike, and his "unveiling" comes with a literal truth coming out - that he has false teeth. Like many times in the novel, this moment is a physically literal and figurative occurrence.
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