The narrator of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is, among his many trials, blocked on the sidewalk by a collection of items belonging to an elderly couple being evicted. His interpretation of the various items begins as “a lot of junk waiting to be hauled away” (Ellison 206). Though he learns that the items have significance to their owners, his read on the situation continues to involve the low quality of their belongings. The early description of the “old woman… wearing a man’s shows and a man’s heavy blue sweater” establishes a theme of this section’s narration, the narrator’s disdain for the items despite his wish that the elderly Provos be allowed to keep them (206). This is the central conflict in the narrator’s position, best evidenced by statements he makes that emphasize the shabby qualities of the Provos’ belongings while upholding their right to keep them. IM notes “a fragile paper, coming apart with age,” which turn out to be Brother Provo’s freedom papers (210). These are the final straw of indignation; when he realizes that the very symbol of an elderly man in his community’s freedom is being left on the ground like trash, he is disgusted but not yet stirred to speak. However, only when other men in the crowd begin to menace the marshal conducting the eviction does the narrator step in to try and control things with his rhetoric. His outrage is “only a bitter spurt of gall” until what he sees as the reputation of the Black community is challenged, at which point he takes on the role of mediator (211). In his own mind, the inspiration of seeing the Provos’ things strewn across the sidewalk allows him to step in and offer unseen perspective to those who may benefit from it.
However, the IM’s intentions may belie the truth of how he feels about himself and his ideology, as well as the ruling ideology. Even his mental categorization of the items that the Provos are having taken away is internally racialized; he separates items such as “‘knocking bones’” and “a small Ethiopian flag” from another group with such things as a child’s greeting card and newspaper clippings (209-210). There is a shame in the narrator’s recognition of these items, just as earlier in the chapter he had to slowly overcome his shame to enjoy the street vendor’s yams. When the narrator rhetorically asks the crowd “who’s being dispossessed?” he is trying to channel this assigned shame into anger, one on behalf of his community (216). His internalized anger at not being fully in touch with his community marries with the anger at his community that he has learned from his necessary dealings with a racist world. The significance of the freedom papers now becomes clear: they stand as a symbol of the lack of progression of the Black community as a whole, something which only the narrator is able to “pick up” on. His appeal to the crowd ends in violence against his best efforts not because he is a poor speaker, but because he has externalized an unknown inner rage where he thought there was only indignation.
