*Why is there so much resentment towad the narrator in the Jolly Dollar?
*How did Clifton choose to make his escape from history?
*How does Ellison use irony on page 438 to show how far Clifton had fallen?
*Explain the significance of the following quote: "They were outside the groove of history, and it was my job to get them in, all of them."
*What happens right before the end of chapter 20 to make the narrator realize the significance of his leadership?
*In the description of the funeral procession, how do the images show the angry pride of the crowd?
*How is personification used to show the power of the music in the procession?
*Why is the narrator envious of the old man?
*How could an old slave song have such power?
*How does the narrator use anaphora (repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs) to make his eulogy more personal?
*What does the narrator mean when he says that everyone at the funeral is in the box with Ted Clifton?
*Has the narrator changed/grown?
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The narrator has had nothing but bad luck ever since he started college. He has been permanently expelled from college, he got fired from his Liberty Paints job, and just when things start to go right for him at the Brotherhood, he is accused of using the Brotherhood to further his own ambitions, and one of his brothers Tod Clifton, is shot by the police. I don't think that Clifton should have been killed just for hitting another police officer. That was excessive force in my opinion.
Since the narrator has left Harlem, so has the brotherhood. The men at the Jolly Dollar are mad at the narrator because they feel that the narrator has abandoned them. The men, former members of the brotherhood, accuse the narrator of wanting to spend more time downtown with the whites than in Harlem with them. The narrator is confused because he has not yet learned that brotherhood jobs have been disappearing in Harlem.
I think the narrator has changed and grown because of Tod Clifton. After watching Clifton on the street ridiculing the Brotherhood, the narrator realizes that the brotherhood had used him as a tool. Tod Cliftons Sambo dolls symbolized black americans still being controlled by white americans. Now the narrator realizes he cannot fight the white power.This is where the narrator starts his invisibility.
The resentment toward the narrator in the Jolly Dollar was because no one knew that the narrator was forced to leave Harlem. Higher members of the Brotherhood had forced him to leave but they neglected to tell the other members of the Brotherhood about it. The man in the Jolly Dollar thought that the narrator left because he would rather help the whites than his fellow African Americans, but this is not true. This scence shows one of the short comings of the Brotherhood and makes the reader wonder if the other members of the Brotherhood were using the narrator at their expense.
A lot of change happened while the narrator was gone out of Harlem. It seems like the Brotherhood abandoned the people and they were left hopeless. That is why there was so much resentment in the Jolly Dollar the night the narrator came back. I think Clifton realized the Brotherhood's abandonment so he wanted to get "out of history" and not be used by the Brotherhood any longer. The narrator takes this as an act of treachery, but I think he soon understands why Clifton left. The narrator takes on this role of leadership at Clifton's funeral wanting to bring back all the people who are outside "the groove of history". He feels its his job as a speaker and a natural leader to inspire the people to stand up with the Brotherhood one more time and take action. The narrator still believes in the Brotherhood even though it abandoned the neighborhood and himself. I think all that is about to change as he becomes invisible.
The narrator significantly changes after he realizes that he is being used by the brotherhood. This change is shown when the narrator decided to act as an individual rather than part of the brotherhood, and gives the speech at Tod Clifton’s funeral. The speech is important because the narrator repeatedly uses Clifton’s name, and describes Clifton’s own characteristics and achievments, which the Brotherhood attempted to take away. I think that the narrator feels very betrayed and upset in these chapters, first when he sees Clifton with the Sambo dolls, and later when he is excluded from the strategy meeting. Between the betrayal, CLifton's death, and the realization about the brotherhood merely using him, the narrator begins to see himself as invisible.
The narrator has changed throughout the novel. He is more aware of betrayal. He believes that he was betrayed by Clifton and also by the Brotherhood. He is beginnging to relize he cannot trust those who he thought were trustworthy. He has also changed because of watching Cliftons doll dance. He finds that on the back of the Sambo dolls is a small black string used to control the dolls. The dolls represent African Americans and the control whites have over them. The narrator relizes that Americans are being controlled by whites.
While the narrator leaves Harlem the brotherhood falls into disarray. Everyone has abandoned the fundamental belief that the brotherhood was to benefit the blacks in Harlem, not to raise national racism awareness. The brotherhood has also abandoned the narrator by excluding him from meeting dates and by not acknowledging him when he adresses them at Tod Clifton's funeral. The killing of Tod Clifton alone is symbolic in that the police and white America want to get rid of African-Americans that are trying to educate and control a revolt of sorts made of blacks. The symbol is that one of the "puppetmasters" (Mr. Clifton) was a member of the brotherhood that told blacks how to revolt and he was killed for posessing the puppets both literally and in the form of enraged blacks.
In the Jolly Dollar, a Harlem bar, the narrator is faced with much resentment. The reason for the resentment is that he runs into two men that he has seen before at some of his speeches. The narrator approaches the two men and addresses them as “brother” which upsets them. They are upset by the simple act of being called “brother” because they have recently left the Brotherhood due to lack of jobs that were for Harlem residents, and are still a bit sensitive on the issue.
The following quote, "They were all outside the groove of history, and it was my job to get them in, all of them," shows that the narrator finally understands his purpose, which is to make sure the world knows about the people everyone tends to overlook, including himself. The narrator finds that the men and women he has been passing by in the streets are not much different than the men amd women he knew in the South. He wants to help these people make something out of their lives so they will not be forgotten.
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