Chapters 7-9

Chapter 7 begins with an ironic encounter between the narrator and the veteran who mocked Mr. Norton at the bar. Indirectly, this is the same man who got the narrator kicked out of the school. The expulsion revealed Blendsoe’s hypocrisy and treachery; he turned his back on his own race, simply because the narrator showed Mr. Norton the ugly truth of the black community which is nothing like the picture that is painted for him at the school. The veteran advises the narrator to stay away from white people, from authority, and from the invisible man that is pulling his strings. Once the veteran gets off the bus, the narrator is saddened to see his last connection to the school walk away, but he is glad that the man was finally able to transfer to a different institution. Upon his arrival in New York, the narrator is surprised to see a black police officer and realizes that this is a much more liberal place. Later on, he distributes the letters of recommendation that Bledsoe gave him and becomes deeply discouraged when he hears no response. His final letter is addressed to Mr. Emerson; the room resembles a bird exhibit and the office’s secretary is actually Mr. Emerson’s son. This nervous, small man has a strong sense of justice and appears disturbed after reading the contents of the letter; he allows the narrator to read it. In this moment, I felt disgusted by Bledsoe’s betrayal. The narrator is exposed to Bledsoe’s true motives; he intended to give him false hope of returning to the school in order to keep him far away from the premises. This marks a massive change in the narrator’s demeanor; he is no longer the naive young boy who looked up to Bledsoe; his trust in other people has disappeared, and he is now filled with anger and vengeance. Mr Emerson’s son offers the narrator a job at Liberty Paints plants which he begins the following morning.