The Ability to Manipulate in Invisible Man

 Throughout the course of Invisible Man we have seen the narrator develop deeper levels of intuition and emotional intelligence, and from our current position in the novel, the narrator has come quite a way from where he began. Nevertheless, there are still parts of the narrator reminiscent of who he was during the beginning of the novel. The narrator is unable to see how he is being used by the Brotherhood, and women- specifically the character of the hostess (the woman who seduces the narrator). 

The Brotherhood and the hostess are similar because they both use the narrator for their own gain. I think the Brotherhood is inherently selfish, and has used individuals to achieve their own objectives. Connectively, by seducing the narrator under the initial guise of a further interest in The Brotherhood, the hostess has manipulated the narrator to achieve her own goal. This ruse of manipulation is best shown through the many examples of The Brotherhood doing the narrator dirty, but I believe Ellison included the scene of the hostess to show both vulnerability within the narrator, and to introduce a connection between the Brotherhood and a seductive woman. Perhaps this connection is simplified to Ellison displaying that both masculine and feminine groups are able to exploit, perceivably to augment the remaining ingenuous parts that have remained within the narrator from the beginning of the novel. 

It should be noted that Ellison's portrayal of woman coincides with Richard Wright's doings in Native Son, which are both, very unsuccessful. Ellison seems to have included female characters for the role of either maternal/familial figure towards the narrator, or figure with seductive/sexual intent. I find it ironic that the narrator had this job of speaking at an event for feminism, yet Ellison has deduced the women who partake in this event, to women with the goal of seducing the male speakers. Ellison infers through his writing that women only have their sexuality to use as an asset and should act accordingly. The women ironically look past the message of the speech delivered by the narrator about feminism, and proceed to sexualize him. 

However, I have a small thought that perhaps Ellison was portraying women as solely-sexual for the intent of deep analysis. Feminism is, by definition, the equal treatment of women and men. Therefore, it is a possibility that Ellison uses the topic of feminism to connect the idea that both men and women are equal in their manipulation of the narrator, and neither side is more dominant in their capability of doing so. This concurs with the point that I made in the first paragraph, about men and women being equally competent of exploitation, and perhaps the definition of feminism is being used as a metaphor for this theory of mine.