Clifton's Death


         Throughout chapters 20 and 21, the narrator experiences a whirlwind of different emotions, particularly regarding Clifton’s death. The ambiguity of the narrator’s emotions and processing of Clifton’s situation begins from the moment he runs into Clifton. When he first sees Clifton selling the Sambo dolls, he feels betrayed, yet somehow also a bit intrigued. Afterwards, when Clifton gets shot, the narrator seems like he isn’t even able to really process what happened. He is shocked and doesn’t know what to make of it. To add even further to his bewilderment, the narrator soon after has to organize and speak at Clifton’s funeral, without having any guidance from the Brotherhood. Throughout his speech, the narrator merely repeats the facts over and over, almost as if he’s in a trance.

         I interpreted this reaction as the narrator feeling conflicted about how to present/frame this situation. Clifton’s death could very easily be seen as a case of police brutality (which it was), but the Sambo dolls complicates the whole situation for the narrator. Adding to the narrator’s dilemma is the fact that Clifton, his close friend, died. Amidst all the planning and calculating of Clifton’s funeral, the narrator never really had time to process his friend’s death. He also didn’t have time to process Clifton selling the Sambo dolls. It was almost like the narrator was about to get really mad at him but then he died so now he doesn’t know if he should feel angry or sad or both. The meeting with the Brotherhood in chapter 23 only goes to make things even more confusing for the narrator. Brother Jack tells the narrator to go to Hambro again and in general tells the narrator to stay in his place and go along with the rest of the Brotherhood. Throughout the meeting, the narrator reacts inconsistently, getting upset and lashing out but eventually agreeing to go along with what Brother Jack directs him to do. Despite the extreme situation at hand, the narrator doesn't show many extreme emotions, making this whole portion of the text more ambiguous.

        Clifton’s death creates a storm in the narrator’s brain and all the events that follow only make the situation worse, but it's difficult to see the reason/purpose behind it all. What role do you think Clifton’s death will play in the narrator’s journey? Will it continue to affect the narrator or will he move on from it?

Comments

  1. HadiyahSeptember 26, 2019 at 11:52 AM

    I agree, the narrator really doesn't get any time to process Cilfton's death. He moves from seeing Cilfton die, to organizing Clifton's funeral, to having the committee get mad at him for the speech he gave at the funeral. It makes sense that the narrator is confused because his friend just died but he felt betrayed. I think Clifton's death played a major role in the narrator realizing his invisibility. I feel like realistically Cilfton's death should continue affect the narrator because he hasn't really processed it yet, so the narrator still needs to sit down and process everything.

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    Replies
    1. MaddieOctober 5, 2019 at 3:14 PM

      I agree, the Narrator was so confused and baffled because of how quickly everything happened and how much he had to process. I also think that Clifton's death was a big part in the Narrator finding his invisibility because it is ultimately what led to him seeing the faults within the Brotherhood.

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  2. MaddieOctober 5, 2019 at 3:12 PM

    That's true, Cliftons death happened so quickly that the narrator didn't completely process it. Everything moves so fast that the narrator's mind becomes full and jumbled and he isn't sure how to deal with it. I think that Clifton's death will always continue to affect the narrator in one way or another because it was kind of a shifting point between blindly following the Brotherhood and seeing the faults in the Brotherhood.

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  3. CollinOctober 17, 2019 at 8:26 PM

    After going through such a terrible series of events, I agree with your statement that the narrator feels immense confusion on what emotion to feel. It seems that at the funeral, he feels them all at once. One thing I would argue is that the narrator was actually feeling too much emotion and not no emotion at all. I think that he had become overwhelmed and his lack of reaction at the situation was due to an overflow of inexplicable emotions that he was feeling. Other than that, I found many of your points true and helpful with my understanding of the passage!

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  4. MitchellOctober 22, 2019 at 2:45 PM

    Remember that the narrator doesn't "have to" lead Clifton's public funeral--in fact, he's doing this without Brotherhood authorization, which will lead to some problems for him. It's his choice, but you're right that he conceives and executes the idea in a fog of confusion about what Clifton's death means, to him personally and to the movement. So the event itself reflects this confusion, as he clearly has no idea what to say to make sense of these events, and as Jack complains, he completely fails to bring in ideology. But his emotionally charged efforts to make sense of events are quite moving, and this ends up being his most "real" speech in the whole novel.

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