Black vs. White 4

The invisible man receives an anonymous letter delivered to his office at the brotherhood which states things such as "Do not go too fast" and "You are from the South and you know that this is a white man's world. So take a friendly advice and go easy so that you can keep on helping the colored people"(383). Hand in hand with his ongoing conflict of black versus white in this journey has been his conflict of being visible versus being invisible. In this instance these conflicts become one as it is brought to the invisible man's attention that he has not only become extremely visible in the eyes of the community, but also that they continue to view him for what he outwardly appears to be. In the process of rallying his efforts in the brotherhood to stand for the equality and cooperation he believes in, he has exposed himself even more to the world, harming his own inward ability to be invisible. He comes to realize that one of the main proponents in his visibility is his blackness, the very characteristic of himself he is seemingly trying to lessen the importance of. His inferiority is further highlighted by how the invisibility the author of this letter creates for himself by being anonymous allows him to have further control over the invisible man's reaction to its words, causing him to question more than he otherwise would have. The words of this letter remind the invisible man of his grandfather's curse and of the ideologies of the white men of the south and of people like Beldsoe. The reader can see at this point that the invisible man was not yet ready to face and conquer all that he undertook through his membership with the brotherhood. His journey is not yet complete and with the italicizing of the words "white man's world," Ellison is pointing out how the constraints he is fighting will still exist and remain constant everywhere he goes, despite of any inner changes he might experience. The narrator cannot move past these until he deals with how to overcome this ominous reappearance of his grandfather's curse through this not so "friendly advice," only then will he be able to truly be helping his fellow people.