ug, how many more of these do i have to do... invisible man, motif

One repeating motif throughout Invisible Man was the black/white color mentioned in areas throughout the novel. In the paint factory scene this motif is largely prevalent and can be seen to represent a number of things. The paint, which was supposed to be a dazzling white, the purest white on the market, was made from dark colors at first.

"I watched him kneel and open one of the buckets, stirring a milky brown substance... he stirred it vigorously until it became a glossy white" (199).

The paint here isn't just paint, it is a symbol for the black race becoming subdued and overpowered by whites. The brown substance represents the black people and the fact that they are stirred until they are no longer brown is the oppression placed on them by the whites. Because the narrator describes the substance as a "milky brown" and not dark brown or black, it may also represent him. The narrator himself isn't as black as others and the Brotherhood even makes a comment along the lines of "Shouldn't he be blacker" later on in the novel. The narrator, the focus of the novel, is easily manipulated by whites and blacks alike throughout the novel. The paint represents him becoming one of them. This can be related to Dr. Bledsoe, who is considered a traitor to his own race. Bledsoe, although black, speaks to the narrator as if he was a white plantation owner. Bledsoe depicts the "Optic white" as he has shed all his black color for a white shade; he is the epitome of the manipulated black man in the novel, because he finds his cause as noble as ever even though he is like an enemy to his own race.

Also the tag line of the "Optic white" paint in its ability to cover up anything, any tint or stain. This represents the white man's attempt to cover up black culture and essentially give the black people a new identity. The white paint covering up the dark stains is representative of the "pure" white race covering up the dark "stains" of the black culture.