The Brotherhood obviously plays a significant role in the narrator's journey, giving him an opportunity to lead and use his talents for a cause he believes in. This starts all well and dandy, but as we see throughout the progression of the novel, the brotherhood appears more and more problematic with even the narrator coming to question and even directly disagree with them. We start by seeing a few small clues towards the brotherhood's close minded and controlling nature, but eventually Tod Clifton's death broke the camel's back for both me as a reader and the narrator, in terms of perception of the brotherhood.
We first notice the brotherhood's objections to individuality. Even Brother Tarp, who tries to share his impactful story with the narrator, is criticized for highlighting their differences instead of focusing on what makes them the same. This same blindness of the brotherhood, is especially evident after Tod Clifton's death, where they refuse to see the racial implications of the events. The narrator seems to disagree with this ideology believing that celebrating people like Clifton as individuals is important, a viewpoint that become a source of contention with the brotherhood later on. Mostly the brotherhood are incredibly rigid and tunnel vision with their beliefs, even telling the narrator that he is paid to speak and not to think. Their pamphlets and strict scientific policy become tiresome to the narrator, as he wishes to galvanize feeling among the people of Harlem. Evidently, the brotherhood is more interested in telling people what to thing than asking them what they think.
These divisions between the Narrator and the Brotherhood mean that their relationship will most certainly come to an end in the near future. With tensions between them already incredibly high after Brother Jack's confrontation of the main character. While the Brotherhood may have played an exceedingly important role in the narrator's development, he was never fully indoctrinated into their cause, and therefore will soon make his own way.
We first notice the brotherhood's objections to individuality. Even Brother Tarp, who tries to share his impactful story with the narrator, is criticized for highlighting their differences instead of focusing on what makes them the same. This same blindness of the brotherhood, is especially evident after Tod Clifton's death, where they refuse to see the racial implications of the events. The narrator seems to disagree with this ideology believing that celebrating people like Clifton as individuals is important, a viewpoint that become a source of contention with the brotherhood later on. Mostly the brotherhood are incredibly rigid and tunnel vision with their beliefs, even telling the narrator that he is paid to speak and not to think. Their pamphlets and strict scientific policy become tiresome to the narrator, as he wishes to galvanize feeling among the people of Harlem. Evidently, the brotherhood is more interested in telling people what to thing than asking them what they think.
These divisions between the Narrator and the Brotherhood mean that their relationship will most certainly come to an end in the near future. With tensions between them already incredibly high after Brother Jack's confrontation of the main character. While the Brotherhood may have played an exceedingly important role in the narrator's development, he was never fully indoctrinated into their cause, and therefore will soon make his own way.
A key point is that the narrator was never fully in line with the Brotherhood's vision. He was always doing what they told him to, but with his own intentions. Just like how Bigger sees any white person as a representation for all whites, members of the brotherhood could be representations of white washing. I think that even though the narrator decided to join the brotherhood cause, he always had underlying suspicions and that was why there was always a tense air between them.
ReplyDeleteI think the Brotherhood's objection to individuality is the key to the split between them and the narrator. The narrator's whole reason for getting involved is to protest an eviction which he felt on a personal level, comparing the evicted to his grandparents. Then, when he attempts to help the Brotherhood rebuild in Harlem, he is rebuked for his taking on of "personal responsibility", even as the Brotherhood sat around without action.
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