Power Week Two

The Invisible Man goes to see Dr. Bledsoe after the speech delivered to the students and the white guests. Dr. Bledsoe tells the Invisible Man that he is expelled from the black college. The Invisible Man threatens to confront Mr. Norton himself and Dr. Bledsoe laughs at him. Dr. Bledsoe tells the Invisible Man that he wont stop him from speaking with Mr. Norton and explains to him why his efforts would be futile due to the immense amount of power that Dr. Bledsoe has. Dr. Bledsoe defines power as not being something that the "Negroes" or the "white folk" have but rather something that he has individually acquired. Dr. Bledsoe tells the Invisible Man that he says "'Yes , suh' as loudly as any burrhead when it's convenient"(142). This displays his use of manipulation to acquire the power  and control that he has over the black college. He is willing to meet the needs and standards of the rich white men in order to gain power. He explains his lust for power by describing it as being, "confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming, and self-justifying"(142). From this quote, the reader may observe that Dr. Bledsoe uses his power to give himself a sense of self. To him, power is what creates his form and power is what drive his actions even if he only saying "yes, suh" to get himself more power. This need for power and control contradicts the idea of enlightenment and transcendence and further clouds the Invisible Man's judgment and perception. Dr. Bledsoe was once someone the Invisible Man looked up to as role model but he was now revealed himself to be power hungry, manipulative, and only after his own well-being rather than the well-being of his people. This is important to the Invisible Man's journey because rather than becoming a man like Dr. Bledsoe he will be able to become the man that he was meant to be even if that is unclear to him now in this section of the novel.