The Invisible Strings Controlling the Dancing Doll

The Sambo doll being sold by Clifton in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man can be seen as an analogy to the narrator’s situation within the Brotherhood. The Narrator is mesmerized by this doll that he thinks can dance on its own. The Narrator sees the Sambo doll on the street, dancing before a “spieler” (German for player). The doll is being played with but the Narrator has no idea it is not moving under its own power. Like the narrator, the doll is actually being controlled by a strict set of rules that is determined by its master, Clifton.

                  After seeing the Sambo doll, the Narrator is appalled by its racist image and immediately spits on the doll. He cannot stand to see a black figure being embarrassed in front of a primarily white audience. A doll you pay to dance. In reality isn’t the narrator just a dancing orating entertainer for the Brotherhood? Is the Narrator not just a face that they are using, because they need a black spokesman in Harlem?

                  The Narrator believes he is operating under his own power as the leader of his district, Harlem, like when he sees the Sambo doll dancing on the street. When the Narrator removes the Sambo doll from his pocket at his office he does not understand why it will not dance for him. In vain he pulls on the flaps until he discovers thin black strings connected to the doll’s appendages. Although it appeared to the Narrator that the doll was moving of its own accord, in reality it was being operated by Clifton.

                  As the reader we can easily see how the doll and the Narrator are related. After the rally staged by the Narrator in honor of Clifton’s death he is confronted by Brother Jack and other leaders of the Brotherhood. In this argument the Narrator is explicitly told that he has overstepped his boundaries. The Narrator was not hired by the Brotherhood to think. He was hired to give speeches and appeal to the black community as a black man.

                  The Narrator is taken aback to discovering he is but a dancing and singing show for the brotherhood, the same as he is taken aback by seeing the Sambo doll. The Sambo doll like him is a black grinning entertainer. By the Brotherhood needing a black speaker are they not going against their own values just to reach a certain audience? The Narrator who believed he was making his own decisions as the leader of the Harlem District, in reality must have the approval of a committee to do anything. In chapter 22, Brother Jack shows the narrator the strings that have been constraining him this whole time. He is able to operate with all freedom within the very strict confines of the Brotherhood’s committee.

                  Ellison gives the reader a hint that the Narrator is a performing marionette during his first party. One of the female members of the Brotherhood is overheard by the Narrator asking Brother Jack if the Narrator is black enough. Here, we are clued into the fact that the Narrator is not needed for his ability to think. The Brotherhood, although they don’t like thinking in terms of race, needs a black man to be their spokesperson in Harlem. This black man is the Narrator. The Narrator finally understands this and is devastated in Chapters 22-23 because he loved and felt apart of the Brotherhood. Brother Jack and the rest of the Brotherhood were just wearing masks that the Narrator finally unveiled. Just like the Sambo doll, the Narrator has been played like a game again.