Violence In Tod Clifton's Invisible Man

The novel Invisible Man takes place mainly in 1930’s America, starting originally in the south but ultimately surrounding the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City, almost twenty years before the start of the major political changes that encapsulated the civil rights movement, with visual leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. This was also at a time when the economy was affected by the Great Depression, in which more than half of African American men were out of work. Tensions were high all around, and there was no shortage of stress and conflict.

One of the greatest scenes of violence in Invisible Man takes place towards the end of the book, on the streets of Harlem. The narrator is walking down the street when he sees a man named Tod Clifton on the street corner, selling Sambo dolls. Sambo dolls are little puppets of African Americans often used as racist symbols. At this point in American history, America was to be considered a “white man’s world”, in the sense that segregation was alive and African Americans were considered second-class citizens. Clifton has to sell things on the street at the expense of his own race, just to survive. The symbolism in Tod Clifton selling these dolls is quite astounding. These puppets are attached to string which Clifton uses to put on dances to entice passers-by to purchase a doll that is bigoted against his own race. It is a statement that African Americans in America are like the Sambo dolls,

Alerted to their imminent arrival, he takes off, as do the people watching his display, to follow him, for it is made clear that Clifton is not to be vending things on the street. The narrator keeps walking by after Clifton runs away, and has he turns the corner he sees a group of people, including police officers, with Clifton in the middle of it all. He then sees Clifton strike an officer who in turn pulls a gun on him and