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Grandfather dies
The narrator has a deep conversation with his grandfather who is about to pass away. The grandfather gives him an important lesson that his parents later tell him to ignore, but he cannot. His grandfather's advice foreshadows the future of the book and the narrator will battle the meaning of it throughout. -
Boxing Ring and Darkness
The young black males are led into a boxing ring. They are told to fight each other for the white man's entertainment. This showed how poorly black men at this time were treated. The narrator is then blindfolded experiences complete and total darkness, which seems to foreshadow how he is indeed invisible, not only to himself, but to other's around him. -
Trueblood's cabin
Mr. Norton and the narrator drive and end up stopping at a log cabin because Mr. Norton could not help but stop. The cabin belongs to Trueblood who had been shunned for committing incest. While listening to Truebloods story, the narrator notices that his story seems to be somewhat similar of his own in the sense that they are both in a race that doesn't seem to have a finish line. He begins to see light at the end of the tunnel of darkness. -
Norton becomes sick
Mr Norton is a white trustee of the college that the Invisible Man attends. Mr. Norton becomes sick on the ride and The Invisible Man takes him the Golden Day, which was a black bar. The narrator sets out to get some whiskey for Mr. Norton hoping to revive him. -
Golden day fight
The Golden day is filled with war veterans from the local insane asylum. A fight breaks out between the veterans and the guards causing Mr. Norton to pass out again. -
Admittance in jeopardy
The Invisible man is now worried about what his stance at the school is given the fact that he was the one to take Mr. Norton on a drive. He starts to ask Mr. Norton over and over again if everything will be okay and Mr. Norton assuredly tells him that his admittance at the school will not be in jeopardy; but the narrator is worried nevertheless. -
Dr. Bledsoe finds out
When the narrator returns to the school with Mr. Norton, Dr. Bledsoe is angry when he hears where Mr. Norton was taken to. Although Mr. Norton repeatedly tells the narrator that there will not be any ramifications from the day, the narrator still fears being expelled. -
Dr. Bledsoe meeting
His worse fears are confirmed when he has a meeting with Dr. Bledsoe and the narrator is told that he will no longer be attending school. Dr. Bledsoe gives the narrator a stack of letters of recommendation so that the narrator can look for a job. -
Bus station encounter
The narrator plans to move to New York. At the bus station he encounters one of the vets from the Golden Day. The vet warns the narrator about the Nortons. Upon arriving in New York, the narrator is amazed to see free black and white people living amongst one another. -
Dr. Bledsoe's letter
The narrator rents a room and starts off on his journey to find a job. After many let downs while searching for a job, the narrator soon finds out from Mr. Emerson's son that the Dr. Bledsoe wrote him a scathing recommendation letter. Mr. Emerson's son encourages him to never go back to Dr Bledsoe's school, as Dr. Bledsoe wanted the narrator to believe that he was only going to removed from school for a semester. -
Liberty Paints
Mr. Emerson's son tells him to look up a job at Liberty Paints. He gets the job the next day. His boss, Mr. Kimbro, does not give the narrotor proper instructions on how to mix paint. As a result he sent to be Lucius Brockway's assistant, a paranoid older black man who is paranoid that everyone is after his job. Brockway makes narrator in charge of watching the gauge. -
Fight and lobotomy
The narrator tries to retrieve his sandwich from the locker but is stopped when he is approached by workers who are in the union. Once Brockway hears of narrator talking to the union a fight ensues between he and the narrator. The narrator forgets to check the gauge and is blown away. He wakes up in a hospital where doctors perform an experimental lobotomy that leaves the narrator feeling completely different once he leaves the hospital. He now feels invincible and invisible. -
Rinehart
The Invisible Man spends time as Rinehart, a man who took many roles in order to push his own needs. It shows the protagonist how men can put on masks to manipulate who they wish. -
Riot
A riot occurs which throws the main characters life into a tailspin away from the Brotherhood. It represents the end of his relation to the Brotherhood and the Brotherhoods ability to affect the world of Harlem and the main characters world. -
Reflection time
The protagonist is shoved into a sewer, forced to live in the filth, and after thinking he leaves to take action. In the last part of the novel this was the Invisible Mans time to reflect after being thrown from society and to come to the conclusion he needs to take action. The end is the call to action part of the novel: the author wants the reader to reflect and act as the protagonist does according to the themes of the novel.
