In the Invisible Man the theme of blindness was constantly associated with the characters and the events. However, one had to "read between the lines" to truly understand what Ellison was telling his audience. He was not telling you why certain characters were blind in the literary sense, but for you to find the deeper meaning. Ellison simply stated the facts and allowed you, the reader, to find the truth through your own vision. .
In defining the theme of blindness in the novel I would have to say that the blindness was not a thing but more of an idea that represented a group of people who were too distracted and confused by society to truly see. Rather the group of individuals chooses to ignore the truth. One character that fits into this group is Brother Jack. Brother Jack was the man who proposed the offer to the narrator to join The Brotherhood, but in the end Brother Jack turned out to be a key reason why the narrator left. At the end of the novel the narrator discovers that Brother Jack has a glass eye. When the eye falls out during a meeting the narrator is surprised. "I lost my eye in the line of duty. What do you think of that?" "I don't give a damn how you lost it as long as you keep it hidden." (p. 475). For one individual the significance of Brother Jack having a glass eye would not be irrelevant to the theme, but it is. The meaning of Brother Jack's glass eye was parallel to his own lost of vision. Not in the meaning of being able to see the wall or the kitchen, but in the novel's sense of blindness. Brother Jack had portrayed himself as a man who fought for the rights of all the races and wanted all to join together in The Brotherhood. However, when the ways of society and the other committee members got to him his initial vision was lost. His glass eye represented the substitute for the real thing. In the real truth brother Jack was a dishonest and untrustworthy man. He was the substitute of .
