Invisible Man Betrayal

In the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, we follow the narrator through his growth as a person, to his conclusion that he is an Invisible Man, and to him realizing that he needs to leave the hole he has put himself in. For the narrator, growth has been a huge part of becoming who he is, growth was set about by many different things throughout the story. One of the things that helped the narrator grow is the betrayal of the president of the narrator’s college, Dr. Bledsoe, a person that he trusts and admires. Dr. Bledsoe is the president of the college he went to and someone whom he looked up to greatly. But when the narrator threatens Dr. Bledsoe’s ideals, the college, and his own race, Dr. Bledsoe feels betrayed, causing him to betray the narrator. Dr. Bledsoe shows the narrator what it means to be betrayed, which in time forces the narrator to grow.
In the first few chapters of Invisible Man, we follow the narrator through his adventures with Mr. Norton. During these adventures, the narrator shows Mr. Norton things that Dr. Bledsoe is irate about him showing to a white man. When he finds out, Dr. Bledsoe exclaims “Damn what he wants…We take these white folks where we want them to go, we show them what we want them to see” (Ellison 102). Dr.
Bledsoe lied to him helped him grow as a human being. Dr. Bledsoe believes that deceiving people is the only way to keep himself in power, so when the narrator shows Mr. Norton the truth of what horrible stuff has happened on campus, he believes that the narrator has not only betrayed him but he has also the school and his own race. Dr. Bledsoe does not take this betrayal lightly and sabotages the narrator by giving him fake recommendation letters and kicking him out of the school without telling him. Dr. Bledsoe gets him as far away as he can, and strands him with no job. This experience helps the narrator grow as a person, and helps him begin a new life away from the