English 174: Invisible Man

What is up with this Dr. Bledsoe guy? He is supposed to be the president of the university, which to me means he is supposed to look out for each student. At the beginning he seemed to really care about students getting a great education but then as "punishment" he expels the narrator. I understand that Dr. Bledsoe believes the narrator has ruined the school and disgraced the African-American race, but he doesn't even try to make something work so that the boy can continue to learn and become better. In my opinion, Dr. Bledsoe is worse than the white men are. He may know how the system works, but he is careful to make sure he has all power (or at least he thinks he has more power than whites). Really he is just like the narrator by trying to fit in and become better than what society tells them they are. Only thing is that Dr. Bledsoe has the power to ruin the narrator's life whereas the narrator is still naive and trying to just fit in with society.

The narrator's desire to belong is very strong. He so badly wants to fit in and become better than he is that, like Dr. Bledsoe, he will step on fellow African-Americans to do so. When the farmer gets money from Mr. Norton, the narrator gets upset. He believe he should deserve that money because he actually goes to school and is making a difference with his life, unlike the farmer. Again, there is this hatred for fellow African-Americans when the narrator goes to this bar called Golden Day. When any of the others pose a threat to his future, he becomes filled with hate for them. In the end, I guess his reasons were valid since he then gets expelled for everything that happened to Mr. Norton on that day. Which I still don't see how Dr. Bledsoe can blame all on the narrator. He (the narrator) was only doing what Mr. Norton asked him to do, and yet Dr. Bledsoe says that white men should never be listened too. It is all rather confusing.

*Anyone else find it interesting how our narrator has no name? I think it helps with the whole invisible feeling. If someone is invisible to the world, certainly no one will no their name, right? When you never see someone nor never think of them, to you they have no name... I wonder what Ellison's real reason for it is.