Invisible Man: Chapters 20-22

Chapter 20 

1. The narrator has been away from Harlem for several months. What “emergency” calls him back downtown? Brother Tod has disappeared, leading to a loss in Brotherhood leadership that is trying to be usurped by Ras the Exhorter and his black nationalist group. 
2. What changes have taken place in the movement since he left. (Note how things have changed in the Jolly Dollar Bar.) The influence of the movement has lost some footing in Harlem, with things that were common knowledge about The Brotherhood before (like their greeting of "Good evening, Brothers") have fallen into partial obscurity. What people do know of The Brotherhood has led them to believe that their disappearance from the public eye means they got "white fever" and resigned themselves to avoiding helping the black community.  
3. What does Ellison mean when he says that returning to Harlem was “like returning to the city of the dead?” That metaphor highlights the desolation of the district in terms of post-Brotherhood economic affairs and the presence of The Brotherhood itself; the lack of action within both the community following the loss of Brotherhood officials and what is left of The Brotherhood itself in Harlem is so stagnant that the movement is essentially "dead."
4. What is Clifton selling? Clifton is selling cardboard Sambo marionette dolls on the sidewalk.
5. How does the Sambo doll relate to the Sambo bank? The Sambo doll relates to the Sambo bank by being made to profit from entertaining (typically) white audiences.
6. What do you think the doll symbolizes? Consider the fact that it is a puppet whose strings are pulled. The doll symbolizes the control that the white leaders of The Brotherhood had over the black district members, even in their home district. The white members pulled the strings of the black ones, forcing them to do what they wanted.
7. How does Tod Clifton die? What is the narrator’s reaction to his death? Tod Clifton dies at the hands (or rather, the end of a gun) of a police officer, and the narrator wants to help his friend but is forced away. This leads to a long bout of soul-searching on the narrator's part, wondering if The Brotherhood was really worth getting involved with in the first place if this is how one of their most respected black members died.

Chapter 21 

1. Why does the narrator feel guilt over Clifton’s death? He feels guilt over Brother Tod's death because he believes that the anger he felt over Tod's new profession had expedited the man's death by not stepping in to help against the cop.
2. Look at the funeral speech. How many times does the narrator use Clifton’s name? Why so many? The narrator uses Clifton's name so often (22 times in total) in order to humanize him and separate the actual man who has died from the personification of hope that Brother Clifton of The Brotherhood stood for in Harlem.

Chapter 22 

1. Why is the meeting with the Brotherhood described in terms of a dream? The meeting is described in terms of a dream because the meeting has not only been long-awaited (a 'dream' in the positive, non-literal sense) and the haziness of the situation and the narrator's future with The Brotherhood now that he has acknowledges their indifference towards true progress.
2. On p. 463, the members are said to have “flowed in one channel too long and too deeply.” What does this mean? Their "channel" in which The Brotherhood has stayed in has been a focus on social science rather than social activism (which they pretend to focus on in order to gain influence within the communities they inhabit), and they have "flowed... too deeply" by prohibiting any other approach to community outreach that does not directly align with their standoffish ways. 
3. Why does the Brotherhood object to the phrase “personal responsibility?” The Brotherhood objects to the phrase "personal responsibility" because they are not focused on the gains of people's personal interests (particularly when those interests have to do with their minority status), but rather what The Brotherhood considers to be "the good of the whole". Responsibility also suggests direct action, which The Brotherhood has already been proven to be diametrically opposed to.
4. Contrast the reaction of The Brotherhood to the funeral speech to the audience’s reaction to the graduation speech. Has the narrator come full circle? The negative reaction of The Brotherhood when the narrator brings up "personal responsibility" is similar to that of the audience of white men at the Battle Royal when the narrator brings up "equality." However, the narrator actually defends his word choice here, rather than deny that he even said it in the first place like he did at the Battle Royal. His firm stance on what he said rather than what he is "supposed" to say has shown that the narrator has come full circle in terms of experience, but has turned over a new leaf personality-wise.
5. What is the significance of Brother Jack’s glass eye? How does it develop the sight image that is throughout the book? The significance of Brother Jack's glass eye is that it is a front for sight (glass eyes can be indistinguishable from real eyes, especially at first glance) and awareness of social disparities to the public, but actually proves that his sympathies and knowledge of the communities' struggles are fake. It develops the motif of sight further by combining a common symbol for sight (the eye, self-explanatory) and making it artificial.