Seminars

I never thought the seminar that we prepare could be so effective in enlightening what the meaning of the work is. Although we can never fully grasp the idea or ideas that Ellison wished to convey, I think we are making a good attempt at it.

Lucius Brockway is an interesting figure who is black, works underground, hated by the workers, and believes in his control over the factory. He is like the grandfather of the narrator who believes that even if he cannot be in front view of everyone in his control, he has the strong conviction that he is controlling everyone. Also, he is the one who came up with the concept of calling the paint Optic White. He gives the assumption or he tricks people into thinking that the paint is pure, white, and without defect. However, the "the liquid inside was dead black"; the drops that completes the white paint is a color that is condemned in society. Therefore, this is Lucius's way of rebelling against the control of the society that refuses to give him the power his desperately wants and has eluded his mind in believing in.  He tells the narrator of the story that in his mind confirmed his authority of the 'Old Man', "Shucks, a few days later the Old Man had me back down here in full control" (216). He doesn't seem to realize that the place he came down to is the underground, a place that no one wishes to go to. Just as with the analogy if Heaven and Hell, people wish to be above ground, in view of people, not cloaked in darkness where no one knows who you are. Therefore, it is only fitting that Lucius has descriptions of being a Satan figure, "...was small, wiry and very natty in his dirty overalls... I couldn't tell whether he felt guilty about something himself, or thought I had committed some crime" ). As the figure in charge of the underground pipe room, that indirectly controls the workings of upstairs, Lucius holds high pride in being that powerful figure. He makes the narrator call him Mister Brockway, leaving the narrator confused as to how an uneducated black man could be in charge of such a big role. The confusion is one of many experiences the narrator has in coming to realize the insignificance of education. The encounter with Lucius prompts his renewal in Harlem in the Brotherhood. The explosion in the underground signifies the rupturing of the 'yeses', possibility, which relates with the advice that the narrator's grandfather once told him about. The narrator also becomes like Lucius in the epilogue, as he describes himself as Dante and guides Mr. Norton to the Center Station.