Dancing and Money

            In recent chapters, we have encountered two objects which have been vehemently opposed by the Invisible Man. First, we encounter the “Jolly N Bank,” and we experience the rage which it channels through our narrator. Then, only a few chapters later, we are shown Tod Clifton and his “Dancing Sambo Doll,” which the narrator is shocked and betrayed to see. The most surprising thing about these two items is, in my opinion, not that they exist but that they are owned by the very people that they mock and degrade.

            First, we begin with the “Jolly N Bank,” in chapter fifteen. We are instantly plunged into quite the surreal scene: the endless “brash, nerve-jangling sound,” combined with the violent and somewhat weird imagery of his side “itching violently […] suddenly the pain seemed to leap from my ears to my side and I saw gray marks appearing where the old skin was flaking away beneath my digging nails.” Then, our narrator notices the “cast-iron figure of a very black, red-lipped and wide-mouther Negro,” painting quite the ugly*, racist picture in our minds. Now I don’t know about you, but at this point I was seeing this as one huge dream, which further exaggerates the violent emotions that our narrator feels when he sees this doll. He is disgusted by it, and proceeds to smash it to pieces and hide it inside of his ever-present briefcase. After this, one of his first thoughts is to question why Mary has something “like this” around, and I can’t help but agree. I can see why a motherly figure such as Mary could have some little tchotchkes sitting around, but the emphasis given to the bank really makes me question it. After all, is it not a symbol of oppression? A gross exaggeration of the stereotypes that must plague her and her friends daily? The only half-decent reasonings to keep such a knick-knack around that I can think of would be to do exactly this: to remind her of the struggles that she face, or to accept it and use it as a symbol of beauty, such as how the N word has been taken and had its meaning changed to be one of brotherhood.

            Next is the “Dancing Sambo” doll. The doll carries quite a burden on it, being the representation of Tod Clifton’s betrayals to the ideals that he was seemingly so passionate about. We see Clifton on the side of the road, after his “fall from history,” selling Sambo, and our narrator is taken aback! He describes himself as feeling betrayed and enraged, and it’s not hard to see why. Yes, Tod Clifton has left an organization. Our narrator at the time sees this as stunning, as he thinks that to leave the brotherhood is to leave history itself. However, the way I see it, the big betrayal is a betrayal of race: not only does Clifton have these dolls, but he’s making profit off of them: he’s selling a manifestation of stereotypes against his own people, and it’s quite shocking to see the man that was once described as a potential “black king” having fallen to such a seemingly despicable position. The worst part about it, from the way I see it, is that we don’t know why. Before our narrator gets to hold a conversation, gets to hear why he has stooped this low, Clifton is shot dead, and we are left with many questions which shall remain unanswered.

*Ugly describing the ideas behind the image, not the characteristics