Power and Sex in Chapter 25


The only real mention of sex is when it is revealed that the character Dupre had gotten a girl, Lottie, pregnant. This is seen when she says "Please. You know my time's almost here...you knows it is" (546). This shows that Dupre has some power over his small community, as he is able to convince even a pregnant girl to leave her home without repercussions.
While sex doesn't play a very large role in this chapter, power certainly does, and one of the best examples is the power that the racists that trap the IM in the sewers have over the IM, through both their racism and the explicit societal power their race gives them. This is seen in a line that occurs as they are looking down at the IM through the manhole, and one of them remarks "Nigger in a coal pile, eh, Joe?" (565).

Synthesis Post: Chapters 16-25

In this last third of the book, power and sex change significantly in how the Invisible Man is associated with them. Earlier, the Invisible Man seemed foreign to anything sexual and was typically the one who has the lack of power. Now as he's struggling with the Brotherhood and trying to find his true identity, he ends up with the upper hand.

When the Invisible Man disguises himself to protect himself from Ras, he is mistaken for a man named Rinehart. Rinehart is a pimp, gambler and a minister

Power and Sex in Chapter 11

In Chapter Eleven, power is displayed through the doctors and the chair that the IM was strapped into. "...worn by the occupant of an electric chair...a man sitting with his back to me, manipulating dials on a panel." The Invisible Man had no control over what was happening to him, he physically and mentally wasn't capable.

Sex is in Chapter Eleven with the songs in the IM's head when he's falling in and out of consciousness and he hears one of the doctors suggest to the other that they do a castration on the Invisible Man, "Why not castration, doctor?" By how that comment is followed up, with laughter, they obviously see this as a joke instead of the Invisible Man as a person.

Power and Sex in Chapter 22

In Chapter Twenty-two, power in shown through Brother Jack. Although Brother Jack seemed to be innocent in the beginning of the readers getting to know him as a character, he developed into being a racist Brotherhood member greedy for power. "Our job is not to ask them what they think but to tell them." "Who are you, anyway; the great white father?" "Not their father, their leader. And your leader. And you don't forget it...As the leader of the Brotherhood, I am their leader." This confrontation between Brother Jack and the Invisible Man displays how selfish Brother Jack is for all the attention and all the followers.

There is no sex in Chapter Twenty-two to my knowledge.

Power and Sex in Chapter 23

In Chapter Twenty-three, power is seen when the Invisible Man realizes that he can trick people into thinking that he's somebody's he's not, a man named Rinehart. "Rinehart, I thought. so it works." The Invisible Man is starting to learn that his invisibility can actually give him more power compared to those who are too ignorant to realize that he's not who they think he is.

Sex in Chapter Twenty-three is displayed when a woman approaches the Invisible Man thinking that he's a man named Rinehart. "I've been waiting for you to recognize me, daddy,...I tell you where to meet me...Will you be able to see me tonight?" All because the Invisible Man is now wearing a hat and a pair of green sunglasses, everybody thinks he's Rinehart, giving him a new identity since he's struggling with his own.

Power and Sex in Chapter 19

Although throughout the book, women have been the ones with the lack of power, in Chapter Nineteen, even though this woman complains about women not having any opportunities because they are in the minority, she clearly has the power over the Invisible Man throughout the entire chapter. When she is able to lure the Invisible Man into her home, she makes him feel restricted. "And if I were really free,...I'd get the hell out of here." This shows that no matter the gender difference, race can still determine who has the power.

Sex was shown in Chapter Nineteen when the same white woman gets the Invisible Man to literally have sex with her. When she lures him to her house and their conversation ends them up in her bedroom. "...in one swift motion the red robe wept aside like a veil, and I went breathless at the petite and generously curved nude, framed delicate and firm in the glass." All night the woman has been teasing the Invisible Man and this was the last thing that happened right before the page break. 

Power and Sex in Chapter 18

In Chapter 18, power is displayed through the link chain that Bother Tarp gives to the Invisible Man as a gift. "But it was the chain, and after nineteen years I haven't been able to stop dragging my leg...it might help you remember what we're really fighting for." When Tarp gives the Invisible Man the chain link, it it something that continues to weigh the Invisible Man down and give him the burden of slavery that Brother Tarp used to have.

Sex is not displayed in this chapter to my knowledge.