Examples Of Lucious Brockway In Invisible Man

A hallmark of Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man, is the author’s selection of characters, many of whom are alienated from American society. These characters, whether major or minor, collectively portray American ideas in the early 20th-century. A prime example of Ellison’s characterization is Lucious Brockway, who employs his personal creed to alienate himself, demonstrating American assumptions and morals also.

Lucious Brockway primarily relies on his creed and beliefs when familiarizing himself with the narrator. Brockway insists that he is the key to the entire Liberty Paints operation, assured that the company would collapse without his work. Because he works in the factory basement, Brockway is literally and metaphorically the base of the company, carrying the burden of the company’s weight and yet being overshadowed by outward aesthetics. Brockway’s third-person, self-assuring statements are true, but the fact that his work is masked by the rest of the factory shows how he is subservient to the majority of society and confining himself to a limited role.

One of few black workers at Liberty Paints, Brockway is the only person antagonized by the others’ worker union. He criticizes his fellow black workers for being ungrateful for the white management giving them jobs, vilifying the young men for- in Brockway’s view- threatening the black race. There was initially professional respect between Brockway and the narrator; however, when the former hears the latter is just vaguely involved with the union, Brockway condemns the narrator’s betrayal and threatens him to