Invisible Man - Chapter 25

hello and welcome back to micah reads today we will be continuing invisible man and we are on chapter 25. we of course have lola with us the best cat for reading books with let's get started when i reached morningside the shooting sounded like a distant celebration of the 4th of july and i hurried forward at saint nicholas the street lights were out a thunderous sound arose and i saw four men running towards me pushing something that jarred the walk it was a safe say i began get the hell out of the way i left aside into the street and there was a sudden brilliant suspension of time like the interval between the last act stroke and the felling of a tall tree in which there had been a loud noise followed by a loud silence then i was aware of figures crouching in doorways and along the curb then time burst and i was down on the street unconscious but unable to rise struggling against the street and seeing the flashes as the guns went off at the back corner of the avenue aware to my left of a man still speeding and rumbling the safe along the walk as back up the street sorry as back up the street behind me two policemen almost invisible in black shirts thrust flaming pistols before them one of the safe rollers pitched forward and further away past the corner a bullet struck into an auto tire the released air shrieking like a huge animal in agony i rolled flopping around willing myself to crawl closer to the curb but unable feeling a certain wet warmth upon my face and seeing the safe shooting wildly into the intersection and the men rounding the corner into the dark pounding gone gone now as a skittering safe bounded off at a tangent shot into the intersection and lodged in the third rail and sent up in a curtain of sparks that lit up the block like a blue dream a dream i was dreaming and through which i could see the cops braced as on the target range feet forward arms a kimbo a free arms akimbo firing with a deliberate aim get a hold of emergency one of them called and i saw them turn and disappear with a full glint of trolley trails faded off into the dark suddenly the block left alive men who seemed to rise up out of the sidewalks were rushed into the storefronts above me their voices rising excitedly and now the blood was in my face and i could move getting to my knees as someone out of the crowd was helping me to stand you hurt daddy uh some i don't know i couldn't quite see them damn he's got a hole in his head a voice said a light flashed in my face came close i felt a hard hand upon my skull and moved away hell it's just a nick a voice said one of them 45s hit your little finger got you to go down well this one well this one over here has gone down for the last time someone called from the walk they got him clean i wiped my face my head ringing something was missing hey buddy or here buddy this yours it was my briefcase extended to me by its handles i seized it with sudden panic as though something infinitely precious had almost been lost to me thanks i said peering into their dim blue tinted features i looked at the dead man his face lay forward the crowd working around him i realized suddenly that it might have been me huddled there feeling too that i had seen him there before in the bright light of noon long ago how long knew his name i thought and suddenly my knees flowed forward i sat there my fist gripping the briefcase bruising against the street my head slumped forward they were going around me get off my foot man i heard quit shoving there's plenty for everybody there was something i had to do and i knew that my forgetfulness wasn't wasn't real as one knows that the forgotten details of certain dreams are not really forgotten but evaded i knew and in my mind i was trying to reach through the grave veil and that now seemed to hang behind me my eyes as opaquely as the blue curtain that screened the street beyond the safe the dizziness left and i managed to stand holding onto my briefcase pressing my handkerchief to my head up the street there sounded the crashing of huge sheets of glass and through the blue mysteriousness of the dark the walks shimmered like shattered mirrors all the street signs were dead all the day sounds had lost their stable meaning somewhere a burglar alarm went off a meaningless blangy sound followed by the joyous shouts of looters come on someone called nearby let's go buddy the man who helped me had said he took my arm a thin man who carried a large cloth bag slung over his shoulder the shape you win wouldn't leave you round here he said you act like you drunk go where i said where hell man everywhere we get to move in no telling where we might go hey you pray he called say man god damn don't be calling my name so loud a voice answered here i am over here getting me some work shirts get some for me do he said all right but don't don't think i'm your papa the answer came i looked at the thin man feeling a surge of friendship he didn't know me his help was disinterested hey do he called we go and do it hell yes as soon as i get me these shirts the crowd was working in and out of the stores like ants around spilled sugar from time to time there came the crash of glass shots fire trucks and distant streets how do you feel the man said still fuzzy i said and weak let's see if it stopped bleeding yeah you'll be all right i saw him vaguely through the gla i saw him vaguely though his voice came clear sure i said man you lucky you ain't dead these sons of is really shooting now he said over on linux they was aiming up in the air if i could find a rifle i'd show them here take you drink this good scotch he said taking a quart bottle out of his hip pocket i got me a whole i got me a whole case stash stashed what i got from a liquor store over there over there all you got to do is breathe and you drunk man drunk hunter-proof banned whiskey flowing all in the gutters i took a drink shuddering as the whiskey went down but thankfully for the shock gave it me but thankful for the shock it gave me there was a bursting tearing movement of people tearing yet bursting tearing movement of people around me dark figures and blue glow look at them taken away he said looking into the dark action of the crowd me i'm tired was you over on linux no i said seeing the woman moving slowly past a woman moving slowly past for the row of about a dozen dressed chickens suspended by their necks from a handful of a new straw broom hell you ought to see it man everything has tore up by now the women's is picking it clean i saw one old woman with a whole side of a cow on her back man she was about to bent bow legged trying to make it home here come do pray now he said breaking off i saw a little hard man come out of the crowd carrying several boxes he wore three hats upon his head and several pairs of suspenders flopped about his shoulders and now as he came towards us i saw that he wore a pair of gleaming new rubber hip boots his pockets bulged and over his shoulder he carried a cloth sack that swung heavily behind him damn duprey my friend said pointing to his head you got one of them for me what cat is they to pray stopped and looked at him with all them hats in there and i'm going to come out with anything but a dobbs man are you mad all them new pretty colored dobs come on let's go before let's get going before the cops get back damn look at that thing blaze i looked towards the curtain blue fire through which vague figures toiled duprey called out and several men left the crowd and joined us in the street we moved off my friend scofield the other called him leading along leading me along my head throbbed still bled look like you got some loot too he said pointing to my briefcase not much i said thinking loot loot and suddenly i knew why it was heavy remembering mary's broken bank and the coins and now carrying the bank and the coins and now found myself opening the briefcase and dropping all my papers my brotherhood identification the anonymous letter along with clifton's doll into it fill it up man don't you be bashful you wait till we tackle one of those pawn shops that dude's got him a cotton picking sack full of stuff he can go into business well i'll be damned a mother on the other a brother nope a man on the other side of me said i thought that was a cup i thought that was a cotton sack where the hell he get that thing he brought it with him when he came north schofield said dude where's that when he goes swears that when he goes back he'll have it full of ten dollar bills hell after tonight he might need him a warehouse for all the stuff he's got you feel that briefcase buddy get yourself something i know i said i have enough in it already and now i remembered very clearly where i'd started out for but could not leave them yeah where i'd started out for but could not leave them maybe you rat schofield said how i know you might not have full of diamonds or something a man on to be greedy though it's time something like this happened we moved along should i leave get on to the districts where were they at the birthday celebration how did all this get started i said scofield seemed surprised damn if i know man a cop shot a woman or something another man moved close to us as somewhere a piece of heavy steel rang down hell that's what that wasn't what started it he said it was that fella what's his name who i said what's his name that young guy you know everybody's mad about it clifton i thought it's for clifton a night for clifton oh man don't tell me schofield said did not see it with my own eyes about eight o'clock down on linux in 120 thirds this pat this paddy slapped a kid for grabbing a baby ruth and this kid's mama took it up and then suddenly the paddy slapped her and that's when all hell broke loose you were there i said same as i'm here some fella said the kid made the patty man mad by grabbing the candy named after a white woman damn damn if that's the way i heard it another man said when i come up they said a white woman set it off by trying to take a black gal's man damn who's sorry damn who started it duprey said all i want is for it to oh damn who started it duprey said all i want for is it to last a while it was a oh it was a white girl all right but she was that wasn't the way it was she was drunk another voice said but it couldn't have been civil i thought it had already started you want to know what started it oh sorry this is a completely different dude again you wanna know what started it a man holding a pair of binoculars called from the window of a pawn shop you won't really know sure i said well you don't need to go no further it was started by that great leader rasta destroyer that monkey chaser someone said listen bastard don't nobody know how it started duprey said somebody has to know i said schofield held his whiskey towards me and i refused it hell man it just exploded these is dog days he said dog days show this hot weather i tell you they mad over what happened to that oh i tell you they mad over that i'm telling you they mad over what happened to that young fella what's his name we were yep we were passing a building now and i heard a voice calling frantically colored store colored star then put up a sign then put up a sign mother fowler a voice said you're probably as rotten as the others look at listen at this bastard for one time in his life he's glad to be colored schofield said khaled store the voice went on automatically hey yo sho you ain't got some white blood no sir the voice said should i bust a man oh i don't even know should i bust him man for what he ain't got a damn thing let the motherfowler alone a few doors away we came to the hardware store this is the first stop man duprey said what happens now i said who's you he said cockiness thrice-hatted head nobody just one of the boys i began you showing you were showing somebody i know you show you ain't somebody i know i'm pretty sure i said he's all right dude said schofield them cops shot him duprey looked at me and kicked something a pound of butter sending it smearing across the hot street we fixing to do something what needs to be done he said first we get some flashlight for everybody and let's have some organization y'all don't be running over everybody else come on come on in buddy scofield said i felt no need to leave or save them i was glad to follow i was gripped by a need to see where and to what they would lead and all the time the thought what i should the shot the thought that i should go to the district was with me we went inside the store into the dark glinting with metal they moved carefully and i could hear them searching sweeping objects to the floor the cash register rang here's some flashlights over here someone called how many dupray said plenty man okay pass one out to everybody they got batteries now but there's plenty of them too about a dozen boxes okay give me one with batteries so i can find the buckets then every man get him a light here's some buckets over here scofield said then all we got to do is find out where he keeps the oil oil i said coal oil man and hey y'all he called don't nobody be smoking in here i stood beside scofield listening to the noise as he took a stack of zinc buckets and passed them out now the store left alive with flashing lights and flickering shadows uh keep them light stand on the floor to pray called no use letting folks know folks see who we are now when you get your buckets line them up and let me fill them listen that old dude lay it down he's a anybody he always like to leave things and always lead me into trouble what are we getting ready to do i said you'll see you'll see duprey said hey you over here come on behind from behind that counter and take this bucket don't you see nothing in that cash register don't you see ain't nothing in the cash register and if it was i'd have it myself suddenly the banging of buckets ceased we moved into the back room by the lights of a flash i could see how a row of fuel drums mounted on racks dupray stood before them and his new hip boots and filled each bucket with oil we moved in slow order our buckets filled we filed into the street i stood there in the dark feeling a rising excitement as their voices played around me what is the meaning of it all what should i think of it or do about it with this stuff duprey said we better walk in the middle of the street it's just down around the corner then as we moved off a group of boys ran ran among us and the men started using their lights revealing darting figures in the blonde wigs the tales of their stolen dress codes flying behind them in hot pursuit came a gang armed with dummy rifles taken from the army and navy store i laughed with the others thinking a holiday for clifton a holy holiday for clifton put out them lats duprey commanded behind us came the sounds of screams laughter ahead the footfalls of the running boys distant fire trucks shooting and in the quiet intervals the steady filtering of shattered glass i could smell the kerosene as it sloshed from the buckets and slapped against the street suddenly schofield grabbed my arm good god lucky onda and i saw a crowd of men running up pulling a borden's milk wagon on top of which surrounded by a row of railroad flares this huge woman in a gingham pinafore sat drinking beer from a barrel which sat before her the men would run furiously a few paces and stop resting between the shafts run a few paces and rest shouting and laughing laughing and drinking from a jug as she threw a top she threw on top says she on top threw back her head and shouted passionately in a full-throated voice of blue's timber if it ain't been for the referee joe lewis would have killed jim referee free beer sloshing the dipper of beer around we stepped aside amazed as she bowed graciously from side to side like a tipsy fat lady in a circus parade the dipper like a gravy spoon in her enormous hand then she laughed and drank deeply while reaching over nonchalantly with her free hand to send a quart after quart of milk crashing into the street and all the time the men running with the wagon over the debris around me there were shouts of laughter and disapproval someone better someone better stop these fools scofield said in outrage that's what i call taking things too far god damn how the hell are they gonna get her off down from there after she gets full of beer somebody answer me that how they gonna get it down around here is throwing away all that good milk the big woman left me unnerved milk and beer i felt sad watching the wagon careened dangerously as they went around the corner went on avoiding the broken bottles as now the spilling kerosene splashed into the pale spilt milk how much has happened why was i torn we moved around a corner my head still ached scofield touched my arm here he is he said we had some we had come to a huge tenement building where are we i said this is the place where most of us live he said come on so that was it the meaning of the kerosene i couldn't believe it i couldn't believe they had the nerve all the windows seemed empty they blacked it out themselves i saw now only by the flash of fl or by flash or flame where will you live i said looking up up you call this living scofield said it's the only way to get rid of it man i looked for hesitation in their vague forms they stood looking at the building rising above us the liquid dark of the oil simmering the liquid dark of the oil simmering dully in the stray flecks of light that struck there that struck their pales bent forward their shoulders bowed none said no by word or stance and in the dark windows and on the roofs above i could now see discern the forms of women and children do you pray move towards the building now look here y'all he said his triple-headed head showing grotesquely atop the stoop i want all the women and chileans and the old and sick folks brought out and when he takes the buckets up the stairs i want you to go clean to the top and i mean the top and when you get there i want you to start using your flashlights in every room to make sure nobody gets left behind then when you get them out start splashing coal oil then when you gets it splashed i'm going to holla and i want to holla three times i want you to lighten matches and get after that it's every tub of its own black bottom it's every tub on its own black bottom it didn't occur to me to interfere or to question they had a plan already i could see the women and children coming down the steps a child was crying and suddenly everyone paused turning looking off into the dark somewhere an incongruous sound shook the dark and shook the dark an air hammer pounding like a machine gun they paused with the sensitivity of grazing deer then returned to their work the women and children once more moving that's right y'all yo ladies move on up the street to the folks you're going to stay with duprey said and keep halt them kids someone pounded my back and i swung around seeing a woman push past me and climb up to catch duprey's arm their two fingers seeming to blend as her voice arose then vibrant and desperate please do pray she said please you know my time's almost here you know it is if you do it now where am i gonna go dupray pulled away and rose to a higher step he looked down at her shaking his thrice had it head now get on the way lordy he said patiently why have you to stop this now we've been over it and you know i ain't going in change and listen here the rest of y'all he said reaching to the top of his hip boop boot and producing a nickel-plated revolver and waving it around don't think there's gonna be any mind changing either and i don't aim for no arguments neither you're damn right you goddamn right to pray we with you my kid died from to bees in that death trap death trap tbs tbs is probably tuberculosis my kid died from tbs in that death trap but i bet a man ain't no more gonna be born in there he said so now that a lot of you go up the street and let us man's get going she stood back crying i looked at her and how shoes her breasts turgid her belly heavy and high in the crowd women's hands took her away her large liquid eyes turned for a second towards the man in the rubber boots what type of man is he what would jack say of him jack jack and where was he in this let's go buddy schofield said nudging me i followed him filled with a sense of jack's outrageous unreality we went up in the stairs flashing our lights and i saw a head i saw dupray moving he's a type of man he was a type of man nothing in my life had taught me to see to understand or respect a man outside the scheme till now we answered rooms littered with the signs of swift emptying it was hot close this here's my own apartment schofield said and ain't the bed bugs going get surprise and ate the bed bugs y'all get a surprise we slopped the kerosene about upon the old mattress along the floor then moved into the hall using the flashlights using the flashlights from all through the building came the sound of footsteps of splashing oil the occasional prayerful protest of some old one being forced to leave the men worked in silence now like moles and deep in the earth time seemed to hold no one laughed then from below came to praise voice okay mans we got everybody out now starting with the top floor i want you to start striking matches be careful you don't set yourself on fire there was still some kerosene left in scofield's bucket and i saw him pick up a rag and drop it in then came the sputtering of a match and i saw the room leap to flame the heat flared up and i backed away he stood there silhouetted against the red flare looking into the flames shouting god damn you rotten sons of you didn't think i'd do it but if there it is you wouldn't fix it up now see how you like it let's go i said the lowest men shot downstairs five and six steps at a time moving in the weird light of flash and flame in long dream bounds on each floor as it pat as i pass smoke and flame arose and now i was seized with a fierce sense of exaltation they've done it i thought they organized and carried it through alone the decision their own and their own action capable of their own action there came a thunder of footfalls above me someone calling keep it going man it's hell upstairs somebody done opened the door to the roof and the flames is leaping come on scofield said i moved feeling something slip and was halfway down the next flight before realizing that my briefcase was gone for a second i hesitated but i'd had it too long to leave it now go on buddy he called we can't be fooling around in a second i said men were shooting past i bent over holding onto the handrail and shouldered my way back up the stairs using my flash along each step back slowly finding it an oily footstep embedded with crushed pieces of plaster showing up on its leather side getting it now and turning to bound down again the oil won't come the oil won't come off easily i thought with a pang but this was it what i'd known was coming around the dark corner of my mind had known and tried to tell the committee in which they had ignored i plunged down shaking with fierce excitement at the landing i saw a bucket full of kerosene and seized it flinging it impulsively into a burning room a huge puff of smoke french flame filled the doorway licking outwards towards me i ran choking and coughing as i plunged they did it themselves i thought holding my breath planned it organized it applied the flame i burst into the air and the exploding sounds of the night and i did not know if the voice was that of a man woman or child but for a moment i stood at the top of the stoop with a red doorway behind me and heard the voice call me by my brotherhood name it was as though i had been aroused from sleep and for an instant i stood there look listening to the voice almost lost in the clamor of shouts screams burglar alarms and sirens brother it ain't brother ain't it wonderful it called you said you would lead us and you really said it i went down into the street going slowly but filled with a feverish inner need to be away from that voice where'd schofield gone most of their eyes wait in the flame flesh dark looking towards the building but now i heard someone say woman who do you say that is and she proudly repeated my name where he go get him man rest won him i should probably be giving him an accent but i'm not going to i went into the crowd walking slowly smoothly into the dark crowd the whole surface of my skin alert my back chilled looking listening to those moving with a heaving and sweating and burr of talk around me and aware that now i wanted to see them needed to see them i could not feeling them a dark mass in motion on a dark night a black river ripping through the black land and wrasse or tarp could move beside me and i wouldn't know i was one with the mass moving down the littered street over the puddles of oil and milk my personality blasted then i was at the next block dodging in and out hearing them somewhere in the crowd behind me moving on through the sound of sirens and burglar alarms to be swept into a sift a swifter crowd and pushed along half running half walking trying to see behind me and wondering where the others had gone there was a shooting back there now and on either side of me they were throwing garbage cans bricks and pieces of metal into plate glass windows i moved feeling as though a huge force was on the point of bursting shouldering my way to the side i stood in a doorway and watched them move feeling a certain vindication as now i thought of the message that it brought me here who had called one of the district members or someone from jack's birthday celebration who wanted me at the district after it was too late very well i'd go there now i'd see what the masters the masterminds thought now where were they anyway and what profound conclusions were they drawing what exposed facto lessons of history and that crash over the telephone ended up in the beginning or jack simply dropped his eye i laughed drunkenly the eruption painting my head suddenly the shooting ceased and in the silence there was a sound of voices footfalls labor hey buddy someone said beside me where you go hey buddy someone said beside me where you going it was schofield see the runner get knocked down i said i thought you were still back there i cut out man a building two doors away started to burn and they had to get the fire department damn wasn't for this noise i'd swear those bullets were mosquitoes watch out i warned pulling him away from where man lay propped against a post tightening a tourniquet around his gashed arm scofield flashed his light and for a second i saw the black man his face grey with shock watching the jetting pulses of his blood spurting into the street then compelled i reached down and twisted the tourniquet feeling the blood warm upon my hand seeing the pulsing cease you done stopped it a young man said looking down here i said you take it hold it tight get him to a doctor ain't you a doctor me i said me are you crazy if you want him to live get him away from here abbott done gone for one the boy said but i thought you was one you oh sorry albert done gone for one the boy said but i thought you was one you no i said looking at my bloody hands no not me you hold it tight until the doctor comes i couldn't cure a headache i stood wiping my hands against the briefcase looking down at the big man his back resting against the post with his eyes closed the boy holding desperately to the tourniquet made of what had been a bright new tie come on i said say schofield said when we were passed wasn't that you the woman was calling brother back yonder brother no it must have been some other guy you know man i think i seen you before somewhere you ever was in memphis say look what's coming he said pointing and i looked through the dark to see a squad of white helmeted policemen charge forward and break for shelter as a rain of bricks showered down from the building tops some of the white helmets racing for the doorways turning to fire turned to fire and i heard skillfield grunt and go down and i dropped beside him seeing the red burst of fire and hearing the shrill scream like an arcing dive curving from above to end in a crunching thud in the street it was as though it had landed in my stomach sickening me and i crouched looking down past schofield who lay just ahead of me to see the dark crushed form from the roof and further away the body of a cop his helmet making a small white luminous mound in the dark i move now to see whether scofield was hit just as he squirmed around and cursed at the cops who were trying to rescue the one who was down his voice furious as he stretched full length firing away with his nickel-plated pistol like that to prey and waved get the hell down man he yelled over his shoulder i've been wanting to blast him a long time no not with that thing i said let's get out of here hell man i can shoot this thing he said i rolled behind a pile of baskets filled with rotting chickens now and up then to my left upon the littered curb a woman and a man crouched behind an upturned delivery cart to hot they said let's get up the hill to hot up with these respectable people he'll hell we'll stay right here the man said this thing's just starting if it becomes a show enough right race ride i want to be here where there'll be some fighting back the word struck like bullets fired close range blasting my satisfaction to earth it was as though the uttered word had given meaning to the night almost as though it had created it brought it into being the instant his breath vibrated small against the loud riotous air and in defining in giving organization to the fury it seemed to spin me around and in my mind i was looking backwards over the days since clifton's death could this be the answer could this be what the committee had planned the answer to why they'd surrender our influence to ras suddenly i heard the horse explosion of a shotgun and looked past scofield's glinting pistol to the huddled form from the roof it was suicide without guns it was suicide and not even the pawn shops here had guns for sale and yet i knew with a shattering dread that the uproar which for the moment marked primarily the crash of men against things against stores markets could swiftly become the crash of men against men and most of the guns and numbers on the other side i could see it now see it clearly and growing magnitude it was not suicide but murder the committee had planned it and i had helped had been a tool a tool just at the very moment i had thought myself free by pretending to agree i had indeed agreed and made myself responsible for that huddled form lighted by flame and gunfire in the street and all the others whom now the knight was making right for death the briefcase swung heavy against my leg as i ran going away leaving scofield cursing his lack of bullets behind me running wildly and swinging the briefcase hard against the head of a dog that left at me out of the crowd sending him yelping away to my right lamb quiet residential street with trees and i entered it going towards 7th avenue towards the district filled now with horror and hatred they'll pay they'll pay i thought they'll pay the street lay dead quiet in the light of the lately risen moon the gunfire thin for a moment distant the rioting seemed in another world for a moment i paused beneath a low thickly leave tree looking down the well-kept doily shadowed walks past the silent houses it was as though the tenants had vanished leaving the house houses silent with all the windows shaded refugees from a rising flood then i heard the single footfalls coming doggedly towards me in the night an eerie slapping sound followed by a precise and hallucinated cry times flying souls dying the coming of the lord draweth nigh as though he had run for days for years he trotted past where i stood beneath the tree his bare feet slapping the walk in silence going for a few feet then the high hallucinated cry beginning again i ran into the avenue where the light of a flaming liquor store i saw three old women scurrying towards me with raised skirts loaded with canned goods i can i can't stop it just yet but have mercy lord one of them said do jesus do sweet jesus i moved ahead the fumes of alcohol and burning tar in my nostrils down the avenue to my left a single street lamp still glowed where the long block was intersected on my right by a street and i could see a crowd rushing a store that faced the intersection moving in and a fuselate of canned goods salami liverwurst hot hog hogsheads and chitterlings belching out to those outside in a bag of flour bursting white upon them as now out of the dark of the intersecting street two mounted policemen came a gallop heaving huge and heavy hoof charging straight into the swarming mass and i could see the great forward lunge of the horses is the crowd breaking and rolling back like a wave and screaming and cursing and some laughing back and around and out into the avenues stumbling and pushing as the horse's heads high and bitt's froth flecked went over the curb to stand stiff-legged and slide over the cleared walkers upon ice skates and past carried by the force of the charge sideways now legs stiff sparks flying to the where the other to where another crowd looted another store and my heart tightened as the first crowd spun swung unperturbedly back to their looting with derisive cries like sandpipers swinging around to glean the shore after the furious waves recession cursing jack and the brotherhood i moved around a steel grill torn from the front of a pawn shop seeing the troopers galloping back and riders lifting the horses to charge again grim and skillful and white steel helmets and the charge beginning this time a man went down and i saw women swing swinging a gleaming frying pad hard against the horse's rump and the horse named and beginning to plunge they'll pay i thought they'll pay they came towards me and i ran a crowd of men and women carrying cases of beer cheese chains of linked sausage watermelons sacks of sugar hams cornmeal fuel lamps if only it could stop right here here here before the others came with their guns i ran but was no firing now there was no firing now but when i thought how long before it starts but when i thought how long before it starts get a side of bacon joe a woman called get us out of bacon joe get wilson's load load load a dark voice came from the dark i went on plunged in a sense of painful isolation as i reached 125th street and started east a squad of mounted police gallup passed men with submachine guns were guarding a bank in a large jewelry store i moved out to the center of the street running down the trolley trails the trolley rails the moon was high now and before me the shattered glass glittered in the street like the water of a flooded river upon the surface of which i ran as in a dream avoided by avoiding by fate alone the distorted objects washed away by the flood then suddenly i seemed to sink sucked under ahead of me the body hung white naked and horribly feminine from a lamppost i felt myself spin around with horror and it was as though i had turned some nightmarish somersault i world still moving by reflex backtracking and stopped and now there was another and another seven all hanging before a gutted storefront i stumbled hearing the crackling of bones underfoot and saw a physician's skeleton scatter shattered on the street the skull rolling away from the backbone as i studied long enough to notice the unnatural stiffness of those hanging above me they were mannequins dummies i said aloud hairless bald and sterily feminine and i recalled the boys and the blonde wigs expecting the relief of laughter but suddenly was more devastated by the humor than by the but are they unreal i thought are they what if one even one is real is cybill i hugged my briefcase backing away and ran they moved in a tight-knit order carrying sticks and clubs shotguns and rifles led by rast the exhauster become ras the destroyer upon the black great black horse a new rass of a haughty vulgar dignity dressed in a costume of an abyss abyssinian chieftain a fur cap upon his head his arm bearing a shield a cape made from this of the skin of some wild animal around his shoulders a figure more than out of a dream than out of harlem than out of even this harlem night yet real alive alarming come away from this stupid looting he called to a group before a store come join with us to burst into the armory and get guns and ammunition in hearing his voice i opened my briefcase and searched for my dark glasses my reinhardts drawing them out only to see the crushed lenses fall to the street reinhardt i thought reinhardt i turned the police were back there behind me if shooting started i'd be caught in the crossfire i felt in my briefcase feeling papers shattered iron coins my fingers closing over tarp's leg chain and i slipped it over my knuckles trying to think i closed the flap locking it a new mood was settling over me as they came on a large crowd that rass had it the largest a larger crowd than ras has ever drawn i went calmly forward holding a heavy case but moving with a certain new sense of self and with it a feeling almost of relief almost of a sigh a sudden ice knew suddenly what i had to do knew it before it even shaped itself completely in my mind someone called look and rasp bent down from the horse saw me and flung of all things a spear and i fell forward at the moment of his right arm catching myself upon my hands as a tumbler would and heard the shock of it piercing one of the hanging dummies i stood my briefcase coming with me betrayal rash shouted it's the brother someone someone said they moved up around the horse excited not quite decided and i faced him knowing i had knowing i was no worse than he nor any better and that all the months of illusion and the night of chaos required but a few simple words a mild even a meek muted action to clear the air to awaken them and me i'm no longer there brother i shouted they want to race riot and i'm against it the more of us who are killed the better they like ignore his lying tongue rash shouted hang him up to teach the black people a lesson and there be no more traitors no more uncle toms hang him up there with them blasted dummies but anyone can see it i shouted it's true i was betrayed by those who i thought were my friends but they counted on this man too they needed this destroyer to do their work they deserted you so that in your despair you'd follow the man to your destruction can't you see it they want you guilty of your own murder your own your own sacrifice grab him rass shouted three men stepped forward and i reached up without thinking actually a desperate or rhetorical gesture of disagreement and defiance as i shouted no but my hand struck the spear and i wrenched it free gripping at mid shaft pointing forward they want this to happen i said they planned it they want the mobs to come uptown with machine guns and rifles they want the streets to flow with blood your blood black blood and white blood so that they can turn your death and sorrow and defeat into propaganda it's simple you've known it a long time it goes use an n-word to catch an n-word well they use me to catch you and now they're using rast to do away with me and to prepare your sacrifice don't you see it isn't it clear hang the lying traitor rash shouted what are you waiting for i saw a group of men start forward wait i said then kill me for myself for my own mistake then leave it there don't kill me for those who are downtown laughing at the trick they played but even as i spoke i knew it was no good i had no words and no eloquence and when ras thundered hang him i stood there facing them and it seemed unreal i faced them knowing that the madman in foreign costume was real and yet unreal knowing that he wanted my life that he held me responsible for all the nights and days and all the suffering and for all that i was incapable of controlling and i and i no hero but short and dark with only a certain eloquence and a bottomless capacity for being a fool to mark me from the rest saw them recognize them at last as those whom i had failed and of them of whom i was now just now a leader though leading them running ahead of them only in stripping away of my illusionment i looked at rass on his horse and at their handful of guns and recognized the absurdity of the whole night and of the simple yet confounding complex arrangement of hope fear hope and fear fear and hate and it brought me here still running and knowing now who i was and where i was and knowing too that i had no longer to run for or from the jacks and the emersons and the bledsoes and nortons but only from their confusion impatience and refusal to recognize the beautiful absurdity of their american identity and mine i stood there knowing that by dying and by being hanged by wrath on this street in this destructive night i would perhaps move them one fraction of a bloody step closer to a definition of who they were and of what i was and had been but the definition would have been too narrow i was invisible and hanging would not bring me to visibility even to their eyes since they wanted my death not for myself alone but for the chase i'd been on all my life because of the way i'd run been run chased operated purged although to a great extent i could have done nothing else given their blindness didn't they tolerate both reinhardt and bledsoe and my invisibility and that i a little black man with an assumed name should die because of a big black man and his hatred and confusion over the nature of a reality that seemed controlled solely by white men whom i knew to be as blind as he was just too much too outrageously absurd and i knew that it was better to live out one's own absurdity than to die for that of others whether for rasses or jacks so when razz yelled hang him i let fly the spear and it was as it though and it was that and it was as though for a moment i had surrendered my life he's just like when he throws a spear i had surrendered my life and begun to live again watching it catch him as he turned his head to shout ripping through both cheeks and saw the surprise pause of the crowd as ras wrestled with a spear that locked his jaws so it went through one cheek and out the other it was like ah he's like stuck in his jaw begun to lock began to live again watching it catch him as he turned his head to shout ripping through both cheeks and saw the surprise pause of the crowd as rats wrestled with the spear that locked in his jaws some of the men raised their guns but they were too close to shoot and i hit the first with tarp's leg chain and the other in the middle with my briefcase then ran through the looted store hearing the blang of the burglar alarm as i scrambled over scattered shoes upturned shoot showcases showcases chairs back to where i saw the moonlight through the rear the rear door head they came behind me like drafts of flames and i led them through and around the avenue and if they'd fired they could have had me but it was important to them that they hang me lynch me even since that was the only way they since that was the way they ran had been taught to run i should die by hanging alone as though only hanging would settle things even the score so i ran expecting death between the shoulder blades through the back of my head and as i ran i was trying to get to mary's it was not a decision of thought but something i realized suddenly when running over puddles of milk in the black street stopping to swing the heavy breeze case and leg chain slipping and sliding out of their hands if only i could turn around and drop my arms and say look man give me a break we're all black folks together nobody cares though now i knew we cared they at least enough to act so i thought if only i could say look they've played a trick on us the same old trick with new variations let's stop running and respect the loved one let's stop running and respect and love one another if only i thought running into another crowd now and thinking i'd gotten away only to catch a punch on my jaws one closed in shouting and feeling the leg chain bounce as i caught his head and spurted forward turning out of the avenue only to be struck by a spray of water that seemed to ascend descend from above it was a mane that had burst throwing a fierce curtain of spray into the night i was going for mary's but was moving downtown through the dripping street rather than up and as i started through the amounted policeman charged through the spray the horse black and dripping charging through and looming huge and unreal naying and clopping across the pavement upon me now as i slipped to my knees and saw the huge bulk the huge pulsing bulk floating down upon and over me the sound of hooves and screams and a rush of water coming through distantly as though i sat remote in a paddled room and over then over almost past the hair of the tail a fiery lash across my eyes i stumbled about in circles blindly swinging the briefcase the image of a fiery comet's tail burning my smarting lids turning and swinging blindly with a briefcase and leg chain and hearing the gallop begin as i floundered helplessly and now moving straight into a full naked force of the water feeling its power like a blow wet and thudding and cold and through it and able partly to see just as another horse dashed up and through a hunter taking a barrier the rider slanting backwards the horse rising then hit and swallowed by the rising spray i stumbled down the street the comet tail in my eyes seeing a little better now and looking back to see the water spraying like a mad geyser in the moonlight to marry i thought to marry there are rows of iron fences backed by low hedges before the houses and i stumbled behind one and lay panting to rest from the crushing force of the water but hardly had i settled down the dry dog day smell of the hedge in my nose when they stopped before the house leaning upon the fence they were passing a bottle around and their voices sounded spent of strong emotion this is some night one of them said ain't this some night it's about like the rest why do you say that because it full of and fighting and drinking and lying give me that bottle yeah but tonight i seen some things i never seen before you think you seen something hell you all been over in linux about two hours ago you know that stud roster destroyer well man he was spitting blood that crazy guy hell yes man he had him a big black horse and a fur cap and some kind of old lion skin or something over his shoulders and he was raised in hell god damn if he wasn't aside riding up and down on his old house you know one of them kinds that pulls vegetable wagons and he got him a cowboy saddle and some big spurs ah now man hell yes riding up and down the block yelling destroy them drive them out burn them out iras commands you you get that man he said irs commands you to destroy them to the last piece of rotten fish and about that time some joker with a big old georgia voice sticks his head out a window and yells random cowboy give him a hail and bananas and man that crazy son of a up there on that house looking like death eating a sandwich he reaches down and comes up with a 45 and starts blazing up at that window and man talk about cutting out and the second wasn't nobody left but old ras up there on that house with that lying skin stretched straight out behind him crazy man everybody else trying to get some looting him and his boys out for blood i lay like a man rescued from drowning listening still not sure i was alive i was over there and now another voice said you see him when he mounted the police got after yeah you see him when the mounted police got after his ass hell no here take a little taste well that's when you should have seen him when he when he seen them cops riding up he reached back of his saddle and sum up and came up with some kind of old shield a shield hell yes one with a spike in the middle of it and hell that ain't all when he sees the cops he calls to one of his goddamn henchmen to hand him a spear and a little short guy runs out of the street and give him one you know one of the kinds you see in them african guys carrying in the moving pictures where the hell is you man me i'm over on the side with some stud done broke in a store and is yelling and selling cold beer out the window done gone into business man the voice left i was drinking me some budweiser and digging the dunes when here comes the cops up the street riding like cowboys man and when old rasta what's his name sees him out sees him he lets out a roll like a lion and ria's way back and starts shooting spurs into that house's ass as fast as nickels falling in the subway is going home time i mean god damn that's when you ought to seen him say give me a taste there fella thanks before he comes buckety-bookity with that spear stuck out in front of him and that shield on his arm charging charging man and he's yelling something an african or west indian or something and he's got his head down like he knew what that knew about that too man like like earl sand in the fifth that jamaica and that old black house let out a winnie and got his head down i don't know where he got that son of but gentlemen i swear when he felt that steel and his high behind when it came on like man no walk man of war going to get his ashes hauled but before the cops knowed what hit him wrassed right in the middle of them and one cop grabbed for the spear and that old ras swung around and bust him across the head and the cops going down and his horse rears up and old ras rears his and tries to spear him another cop and the other horses is plunging around and old rats tries to spear him another still another cop only is too close and his horse is putin and snorting and pissing and and they swings around and the cop is swinging his pistol and every time he swings old rice throws up a shield with one arm and chops at him with a spear with the other and the man you could hear that gun striking that old shield like somebody dropped entire irons out of a 12-story window and you know what when old ross saw that he was too close to spear him a cop to spare him a cop he wheeled that hoss round and rode off a bit and did him a quick roundabout face and charged him again out for blood man only this time the cops got tired of that and one of them started shooting and that was the lick old ross didn't have time to get his gun so he let fly that spear and you could hear him grunt and say something about that cop's kin folks and then him in that house shot up the street leaping like hi hi ho the goddamn silver man where'd you come from it's the truth man here's my right hand kinda like saying i swear they were laughing outside the hedge and leaving i as i and i lay in a cramp waiting to laugh and yet knowing that rass was not funny or not funny but dangerous as well or not only funny but dangerous as well wrong but justified crazy and yet oddly and get oddly and yet coldly sane why did they make it seem funny only funny i thought and yet knowing that it was it was funny and dangerous and sad jack had seen it or had stumbled upon it and used it to prepare a sacrifice and i had been used as a tool my grandfather had been wrong about yesing them to death and destruction or else things changed too much since his day there was only one way to destroy them i got up from behind the hedge in the waning moon wet and shaken in the hot air and starting out looking for jack still turned around in my discretion i moved into the street listening to the distant sounds of the riot and seeing in my mind the image of two eyes in the bottom of a shattered glass i kept it the darker side of the streets into the silent areas thinking that he wished really to hide his strategy he'd appear in the district with a loud with a sound truck perhaps playing the friendly advisor with restroom and tobit beside him they were in civilian clothes oh hold on uh anyways they weren't civilian clothes and i thought cops until i saw a baseball bat and started turn to turn hearing hey you i hesitated wasn't a briefcase they said and if they asked me anything else i might have stood still but at that question a wave of shame and outrage shook me and i ran still heading for jack but i was in a strange territory now and someone for some reason had removed the manhole cover and i felt myself plunged down down a long drop that that ended up on a load of coal that sent up a cloud of dust and i lay there in the black dark upon the black coal no longer running hiding or concerned hearing the shifting of the coal is from somewhere above their voices came floating down you see the way he went down zoom and i was just fixing to slug the bastard you hit him i don't know say joe you think the bastard's dead maybe he sure is in the dark though you can't even see his eyes and we're in the coal pile hey joe someone hollered down the hole hey black boy come on out we want to see what's in that briefcase come on down and get me i said what's in a briefcase you i said suddenly laughing what do you think of that me and all of you i said you're crazy he said but i still have you in this briefcase what did you steal can't you see i said light a match what the hell is he talking about joe strike a match this boogie's nuts high above i saw the small flames sputtered to light they stood heads down as in prayer unable to see me back in the cold come on down i said i've had you in my briefcase all the time and you didn't know it was me and can't see me now you son of a one of them called outraged then the match went out and i heard something fall softly upon the coal nearby they were talking above you goddamn black inward son of a someone called see how you like this and i heard the cover settle over the manhole with a dull clang fine bits of dirt showered down as they stamped upon the lid and for a moment i sent cole sliding in wild surprise looking up and through the black space to where for a second the dim light of a match sank through the circle of holes in the steel then i thought this is the way it's always this is the way it's always been only now i know it and rested back calm now placing the briefcase beneath my head i can open it in the morning push off the lid now i was too tired too tired my mind retreating the image of two glass eyes running together and blobs of melting lead here it was as though the riot was gone and i felt a tug of sleep seemed to move out upon the black water it's a kind of death without hanging i thought i death alive in the moment i'll remove the lid mary i should have gone to mary's i would go now to mary's in the only way that i could i moved off over the black water floating sighing sleeping invisibly but i was never to reach mary's and i was over optimistic about removing the steel cap in the morning great and visible waves of time rolled over me but that morning never came there was no mourning nor light of any kind awakened me and i slept on and on until finally i was aroused by a hunger then i was up in the dark and blundering around feeling rough walls the coal giving way beneath each step like treacherous sand i tried to reach above me but found only space unbroken and unpenetrable then i tried to find the usual ladder that leads out of such holes but there was none i had to have a light and now on my hands and knees holding tight to my briefcase i searched the coal until i found the folder of matches the men had dropped how long ago had that been but there were only three and to save them i started searching for paper to make a torch feeling about slowly over the coal pile i needed just one piece of paper to light my way out of the hole but there was nothing next i searched my pockets finding not even a bill or an advertising folder of a brothers or brother's leaflet why had i destroyed reinhardt's throwaway well there was one thing to do if i was to make a torch i'd have to open my briefcase in it where the only papers i had i started with my high school diploma applying one precious match for the feeling of remote irony even smiling as i saw the swift but feeble light push pat back the gloom i was in a deep basement full of shapeless objects that extended further than i could see and i realized that to light my way out sorry to light my way out i would have to burn every paper in the briefcase i moved slowly off towards the darker blackness lighting my way by these feeble torches the next to go was clifton's doll but it burned so stubbornly that i reached across the case for something else then by the light of the smoke sputtering doll i opened a folded page it was the anonymous letter which burned so quickly that it was flamed i hurriedly unfolded another it was a slip upon which jack had written my brotherhood name and i could still smell emma's perfume even in the dampness of the cellar and now seeing the handwriting of the two and the consuming flames i burned my hand and slipped to my knees staring the handwriting was the same i knelt there stunned watching the flames consume them oh so it was the woman that warned him hey we learned then he or anyone in that late date hold on am i right about that or maybe not i don't know it doesn't matter actually it does matter i want to know so for so he it was the anonymous letter which burned so quickly that as it flamed i hurriedly unfolded another it was a slip upon which jack had written the brotherhood name i could still smell emma's perfume even in the dampness of the cellar now seeing the handwriting of the two yeah so it's the two in the consuming flames i burned my hand and slipped to my knees staring the handwriting was the same yeah so the person that wrote him the name and emma are the same focus on me camera so uh anyways uh that he or anyone that late date could have named me and set me running with one and the same stroke of a pen was too much suddenly i began to scream getting up in the dark hold on wait it was jack that warned him i thought it was the girl but jack is the one that had written his name so it was jack's handwriting but had also written him so jack had warned him that he would get cut down what i'm kind of blown away but i also don't know why focus focus on me yeah yeah okay um suddenly i began to scream getting up in the darkness and plunging wildly about bumping against walls scattering coal and in my eager eager in my anger extinguishing the feeble light but still whirling on the blackness knocking against the rough walls of the narrow passage banging my head and cursing and stumbling down and plunged against some kind of partition and sailed headlong coughing and sneezing into another dimension dimensionless room where i continued to roll about the floor in my outrage how long this kept up i do not know it might have been days weeks i lost all sense of time and every time i paused to rest the outrage revived and i went off again then finally when i could barely move something seemed to say that's enough don't kill yourself you've run enough you're through with them at last and i collapsed faced forward and lay there beyond the point of exhaustion too tired to close my eyes it was a state neither of dreaming nor of walking but somewhere in between in which i was caught like true blood's jaybird that yellowjackets had paralyzed in every part but its eyes oh there's now this is all in italics i don't know what that means but the rest of this the whole page is in italics but somehow the floor had now turned to sand and the darkness to light and i lay the prisoner of a group consisting of jack and old emerson and bledsoe and norton and ras and the school superintendent and a number of others whom i failed to recognize but all of whom had run me who now pressed around me as i lay beside a river of black water near where an armored bridge arched sharply away to where i could not see and i was protesting they're holding me and they were demanding that i returned to them and were annoyed with my refusal no i said i'm through with your illusions and lies i'm through running not quite jack said above the others angry demands but you soon will be unless you return refuse and will free you of your illusions all right no thank you i'll free myself i said struggling to rise from the cutting sand but now they came forward with a knife holding me and i felt the bright red pain as they took the two bloody blobs and cast them over the bridge and out of my anguish i saw them carve up and catch beneath the apex of the carving arch of the bridge to hang there dripping down through the sunlight into the dark water and while others laughed before my pain sharp by paying sharpened eyes the whole world was slowly turning red now you're free of illusions jack said pointing to my seed wasting upon the air how does it feel to be free of one's illusions so i think they cut out his eyes in this like imaginary world because he's free of his illusions he's free of sight i guess and i looked up through the pain so intense now that the air seemed to roar with clanging metal how does it feel to be free of illusion and now i answered painful and empty as i saw a glittering beautiful or a glittering butterfly circle three times around my blood red parts up there beneath the bridges high arch but look i said pointing and they looked and laughed and suddenly seeing their sad satisfied faces and understanding i gave a bledsoe laugh startling them and jack came forward curious why do you laugh he said because at a price i now see which i couldn't see i said what does he think he sees they said and jack came closer threatening and i laughed i'm not afraid now i said but if you'll look you'll see it's not invisible see what they said that they're that there hang not only my generate oh it's his balls i think they cut off his balls and that's what he meant by seed that's very literal um yeah so they cut off his balls and hung them from like a bridge that there hang not only my generations wasting upon the water and now the pain welled up and i could no longer see them but what go on but your son as in like the star sun is not like a child sun but isn't like in the sky sun but your sun yes and your moon he's crazy your world i knew he was a mystic idealist toby tobit said still i said there's your universe and that drip drop upon the water you hear is all is all the history you've made all you're gonna make now laugh you scientists let's hear you laugh and high above me now is and high above me now the bridge seemed to move off to where i could not see striding like a robot an iron man whose iron legs clang doomfully as it moved and then i struggled up full of sorrow and pain shouting no no we must stop him and i woke in the blackness fully awake now i simply lay there as though paralyzed i could think of nothing else to do later i would try and find my way out but now i could lie i could only lie on the floor reliving the dream all their faces were so vivid that they seemed to stand before me beneath the spotlight they were all up there somewhere making a mess of the world well let them i was through and in spite of the dream i was whole and now i realized that i couldn't return to mary's or to any part of my old life i could approach it only from the outside and i had been invisible to mary as i had been to the brotherhood and i had been as invisible to mary as i had been to the brotherhood no i couldn't return to mary's or to the campus or to brotherhood or at a home i could only move ahead or stay here underground so i would stay here until i was chased out here at least i could try to think things out in peace or if not in peace in quiet i would take up my residence underground the end was in the beginning okay and so this is the end of this chapter but there's still an epilogue to follow this so the next video will be the final like hopefully explanation of what happened because this is really confusing but i can walk you through the things i do remember and understand and we'll try and figure it out together or at least you can figure it out by reading the spark notes but um the sparknotes link that i shared previous video covers previous chapter which is what was it 22 uh this is a really long chapter by the way i don't know if you noticed in the fact that it's already over an hour and we haven't even started doing our review um yeah i don't know what chap this is like chapter 23 or something it's like 22 23 and the epilogue are all under one spark notes so 25 so like 24 25 in the epilogue i think yeah so those should all be under one spark notes so if you read it now you're gonna get something spoiled for you because the epilogue is like the conclusion of the story so or maybe i should just read this [Music] no that's a lot of work i'll do that monday anyways so this chapter review our character this is following sybil being separated from him because he sends her off in the cab and so he goes into harlem after he gets off the bus and under the bridge and then anyways he ends up in harlem and the second he gets there there's shooting there's rioting everything's on fire things are completely wrecked and our character walks into the middle of a gun battle a bunch of um a bunch of black men had like stolen a safe and they were like pushing it along the pavement it had like wheels or something so they were like pushing this wheel safe along the pavement and cops were like shooting at them as they were like pushing it away and so they were trying to get away and our character gets caught in the crossfire he gets shot like right here in the head and the bullet kind of grazes away um but he's got like he's like his head's kind of tore up and he's bleeding and he falls to the ground and i think the men lose like they lose a handle on the safe and it starts rolling into the street i don't know if all of them die but some of them get shot down and die um and then the safe ends up on the um they had those street cars that were run from electricity so the safe ends up on the track for the street car and hits the third rail which is the rail that holds electricity and so the safe starts sparking all over the place and then everything loses power and so our character gets picked up by somebody who is called scofield i think and this guy along with somebody named reuben or something like that um we'll call him rue so this guy along with rue and a few other people have like a plan for what they're doing tonight because this was apparently a planned riot and it was well known that this is what would be happening so our character follows along with him just kind of along for the ride because he doesn't really know what he's doing he's still a little bit drunk he's still a little bit lost in the night and so he just follows them around they go to a hardware store they go to well they go to a bunch of like stores and then they eventually end up at a hardware store and rue is like hey i need you guys to get a bunch of buckets and flashlights and we're going to fill up these buckets with coal oil basically kerosene um so basically gasoline any it's just it's something that burns a liquid that burns doesn't matter uh so coal oil and so they're like okay let's go and so they gather all the coal oil and buckets and the guy's like who are you to our character and our character's like just some guy and he's like okay cool and uh it's because schofield basically said yeah he got shot in the head by the cops he's clearly on our side so our character gets taken to the big apartment building that they're going to and rue basically says hey we're going to burn down this building and our character's like what and he's like yeah and scofield's like yeah it's the building we live in and our character's like oh and so basically what they're doing is they're fighting back against the the um landlord who's been exploiting them refusing to fix the building the building's been falling apart and they it's like the only place they can afford and basically they're being forced to live in these like inhumane conditions because the landlord refuses to do anything um with the property and there's just a shortage of places to live and so they're so fed up with it they're like we're just gonna burn the whole place down there's nothing else we can do there's no way to make our voices heard that we won't stand for these conditions anymore and so they get everyone out of the building they put coal oil all over it and start lighting it from the top floor all the way to the bottom floor and near the bottom floor probably on like the second or third floor our character's like wait a minute i lost my briefcase and so he leaves schofield grab yeah scofield he leaves schofield finds his briefcase notices it's like dirty and stepped on and stuff he's like it's fine and then runs back downstairs he can't find schofield anymore he can't find anyone he's like where did they go and this woman's like oh hey it's that brother from the brotherhood and he's like uh oh and somebody's like wait it's who ras is looking for that guy and our character starts booking it and getting out of there and eventually he stumbles across schofield again after he's been running away from these people for a while and scofield's like uh hey what's going on here where you been and our characters like i was looking for you but i got distracted and skill feels like yeah i was actually right there you didn't see me uh didn't they call you like brother or something and our character's like no he's like i thought i'd recognize you from somewhere in like tennessee and our character's like nope and he's like okay and so from there things get even wilder the apartment building starts burning down uh buildings next to us next to it start burning down um the fire department's called police show up on horses and start like trampling people and shooting people and just like trying to fight against these riots our character then um scofield then engages the cops by shooting at them with his pistol because he's got a little pistol and our character's like that pistol's not going to do anything and scofield's like i've been wanting to do this forever and so our character's like all right will you be suicidal i'm getting out of here so he runs off and leaves schofield behind then he winds up running into rasta destroyer and we're asked to destroy i think i'm i'm i hope i'm not missing anything but he runs and harass the destroyer and he's like oh this isn't good and rash is like you and our character's like oh boy and ras has before he runs into wrasse he walks onto this street where there's a skeleton on the ground it's like a doctor's skeleton one of those like model skeletons it could be a real skeleton but either way it's from a doctor's office and our character steps on it's like oh my god bones and then he sees hanging from all these uh lamp posts or bodies and he's like oh my god bodies and he's like okay those are just mannequins it's not that big of a deal but he's still like kind of startled by his like one of them could be a person that's when rash shows up rest throws the spear at our character and our character is like whoa and the spear hits a mannequin and rasa is basically like kill that guy and our inner people start charging in our characters like don't kill me this is ridiculous and he realizes that this whole time this dichotomy between him and ras this like trying to make a positive influence versus trying to cause riots the whole point of our character shutting down ross was to make ras more angry the brotherhood wanted our character to anger ross that was a ras ross i don't know how to say it the whole point of our character being in harlem was to cause harlem to get angry was to cause harlem to riot to show that the system is broken the brotherhood is going to build their political movement on the death of a lot of people in the black community they're going to be like look at how angry these people were because of the unfit conditions that the society brings them look at how violent the cops are in attacking these people and so this whole time the brotherhood was just manipulating i mean we already knew it but like our character starts feeling it even more the the brotherhood was manipulating the black community to turn against itself so that it could be so that they would riot to benefit the political motives of the brotherhood which angers our character so much and he's like ras i'm not with the brotherhood anymore i am so far away from that right now i cannot stand what has just happened and like they've been forcing us to be against each other this whole time and ras is like i don't care you chose the white people and in a way our character's like you know what you have a point i couldn't see it at the time but i was being manipulated by white people and now i have to pay the consequences but i certainly don't want to die for it and so he grabs the spear out of the mannequin chunk and he throws it at ras and catches him right in the cheek it comes out the other cheek and wrasses like ah and everybody's like whoa what the hell just happened and so our character books it out of there again he's good at running um and so he runs away from the situation and people are chasing after him and they've got guns and our character thinks he's going to get shot but then he realizes they're not going to shoot me because they want to hang me ras wanted to hang me to make a statement to other black people not to betray them and so our character's like well i know i won't get shot so he turns around he like punches him with the like uh um brother tarp's leg chain and his knuckles so he could use this kind of like a bloody knuckle to kind of like punch people away and he's still got a suitcase so he's like hitting him with a suitcase and he eventually gets away from them um and ends up hiding in a bush somewhere and you overhear some people talking about um talking about rasta destroyer rasty exhorter as it becomes rasta destroyer and they're basically talking about how he ended up looking like he looks because he's out on the street with a fur hat with a lion pelt on his shoulders an african shield and an african spear and he's basically out there looking like this like african king that he's been trying to like push as his narrative of like yeah we're come from kings and we deserve to have that like that standing that that established whatever and he was like yeah we're out here to cause blood and destruction and they're kind of joking about it but at the same time being like yo this guy's crazy but he's like at least he's getting out that anger that we all feel and they describe the stories of how when um when he first showed up on the horse they saw him and somebody was like shouting at him and he pulls out a gun and he starts shooting up at the window where they are and i think he kills them and then he runs across the cops and he pulls out it he pulls out a shield so that he can block the bullets and it makes like a throwing noise and rasp charges at them with a spear and starts stabbing cops with a spear but he's too close so he like gallops the horse away and then comes back and spears some more of them and so they're like i mean he's really out here on a horse killing people and they're laughing about it the whole time and they're like no way there's no way he did that and our character realizes how absurd and ridiculous the situation is how just like unbelievable rash is as a character and how perfectly justified he is in his anger and so he's like like i get it and i can't even be mad at it and i don't want to think it's funny but like it is funny just how ridiculous he is like there's no way you should be fighting cops on horseback with an african spear like it's just a ridiculous cert like set of circumstances that led to this moment and so our character is really just kind of just like like this is really destructive and bad what he's doing but at the same time like this guy's on a horse he's fighting other he's fighting other horseback other people on horseback with a spear when they have guns and it's just like and so our character like is in somewhat admiration he's like i mean this is what the community needed this is the anger this is the like they didn't need me to harness their energy and direct it towards a movement they started planned and executed their own movement without me and this was always how it was going to be and so in part he's like proud of the community for organizing the way they did but at the same time sad because the movement he was trying to start was just in order to benefit the brotherhood politically and so it's weird it's definitely a weird kind of like sort of ending to this and it's not quite the ending but it's a weird kind of like pre-ending conclusion or peak to the story where you're just getting all of these like all of these events happening back to back anyways they leave uh the the people that were just like drinking and talking about ras and our character gets up and he runs into these i think they're white people on the street and they have baseball bats and basically they're out here to be the all lives matter crowd of the time uh just white people looking to like beat up some black people that have stolen stuff and they see him with a suitcase and like what you got in that suitcase boy i think they're white i'm not 100 sure but they referred to him as an n-word several times and so it's probably because they're white and they're racist anyway so he's like i don't want to explain this i don't want to like i'm embarrassed by what's in this because in it is that statue that had money in it that like after that um like racist caricature statue like piggy bank and that had been shattered and our characters like i'm not gonna show these people what's in this suitcase it's embarrassing and so our character kind of like runs he's like i'm out of here and then he falls into a manhole cover a manhole cover's been removed he falls into the manhole and so this is like the plot to soul that's how the character dies in that but anyways uh our character doesn't die he lands on a pile of coal and he's sitting at the bottom and he's like okay i'm down here and so the people at the top of the hole look down on him like we can't even see this black guy and then he's like light a match you'll be able to see me and they're like what you got in that suitcase and he's like you're in my suitcase no idea what that means no idea what that was supposed to mean our character occasionally says nonsensical things and i will never be able to figure them out but um we'll skip over what he was talking about because again completely lost on me they throw a couple matches down there give up cover the manhole cover um and walk away our character uh goes to sleep at the bottom of the coal pit um and then wakes up a little bit later and he's hungry and he's like okay so i'm trapped down here let me see if i can find a way out there are there is no ladder to get out of the manhole and he's like that's not good okay so how do i get out of here and so he finds the matches that they had dropped because they dropped the whole matchbook there's like three matches in it it should be enough but he's like there's no way i can get out of here with only three matches i need something to burn he's looking around for paper he can't find paper he's like okay i have papers in my suitcase but this is like my entire identity in here so this is really him becoming like the invisible man he's getting rid of his entire identity both identities his original idea identity because he has the high school diploma and that's the first thing he burns he gets rid of his first identity burning that away and then he starts burning brotherhood paperwork and he realizes uh and this is all just for light and he realizes that the um the note that he had gotten with his new name on it his new because he was given his new name by uh brother jack that handwriting is the exact same handwriting that he got on the letter that said hey you need to watch out you're getting too big they're going to cut you down so jack had been the one that forewarned him that he needed to stop being too big for his britches basically you can interpret this two ways but i think you interpret it you can interpret it i think it's meant in one way i think you can still interpret in two ways one he's genuinely warning him hey you need to watch out people are gonna try and cut you down number two he was warning him hey watch out i'm gonna cut you down which is how i'm interpreting it i'm thinking jack said i'm gonna write him a letter to try and stop him from gaining as much popularity as he is because it's becoming difficult for us to control you is kind of how i'm interpreting it basically this was written in a way that it's like oh watch out they're going to get you but instead was written with the intention of manipulating him into being like less less passionate less aggressive less inspiring to people and instead of him doing that he was like nah to hell with this letter i'm just gonna push forward then jack cuts him down he says okay well we're gonna do it then and sends him off to work on the women's movement things in harlem collapse as they wanted them to they bring him back and say okay have fun and he's like what do you mean have fun and then they don't talk to him and basically they expect him to get fed up with this movement get fed up with the fact that he's been um tricked and that they let this die and that he feels abandoned they're basically counting on him feeling abandoned and not putting any effort in and because of that it allows ras to get stronger and the whole violent riot thing to happen basically they pulled our character out so that ras could get the momentum he needed to destroy everything because they wanted that they wanted that violence because that violence is very strong politically you can get white people to vote almost any way you want if you convince them that there's something dangerous happening or something bad happening because convincing people out of fear is so much more convincing than trying to convince them using logic so these scientists instead of committing to the scientific promises of just educating people uh through just con can like through convincing arguments are basically like hey we're not gonna present convincing arguments anymore uh the convincing argument is that half the city burned down so it's weird it's like running trying to trying to control people through fear and anger is like the complete opposite of what they supposedly stood for anyways our character frustrated with all of this um laying at the bottom of that coal pit uh he wanted he like just gets infuriated finding out that it was jack the whole time uh that had been doing this to him and had known and that our character was like oh i'm gonna i'm gonna get back at him and take him down and by getting back at them and taking down taking them down he did exactly what they wanted which is not his job like if he had properly done his job and riled up the community and gotten them educated and like gotten everybody back on track like what like what he was expected to do originally then their plans would have been thwarted but they counted on him revolting against them they counted on him not trying in the community anymore and so he didn't actually get back at them he just did exactly what they wanted and so at no point did he ever have the upper hand it was all fake it was all a lie he thought oh i'm gonna sleep use a woman to get to him no they just wanted you out of the way so you would do nothing in your job and you did nothing in your job and did exactly what they wanted and so and like he was always 10 steps behind he was always like never going to catch up to him and he's like this is such because i just wanted what was best for the community i wanted to like help people i wanted to make an impact on history and instead i was treated like a pawn manipulated and then thrown away and so as he's like thrashing around on the ground he has the he falls asleep because it's not just a straight like hole into the ground there's like a whole room that's right next to the hole and so he goes into the room like getting angry and kicking stuff over and rolling on the ground and he falls asleep because he's so angry um or he just wears himself out because he's hungry and he's exerting himself a lot and he falls asleep and then he imagines himself confronted by bledsoe and brother jack and tobit but mostly uh brother jack who's asking him stuff and then they um [Music] they come forward with a knife holding me and i felt a bright red pain as they took the two bloody blobs and cast them over the bridge and out of my anguish i saw them carve up and catch beneath the apex of the curving arch of the bridge to hang there dripping down in the sunlight into the dark red water and while others laughed before my pain sharpened eyes the whole world was slowly turning red and so in his dream he had his like balls cut off and thrown over a bridge and he's like looking up and he sees like a butterfly and he's laughing at them and he's like you guys didn't win and he said they're like what do you mean we didn't win he's like it's not invisible and they're like that not i don't even know what they're trying to get this dream was the stream sequence was so confusing to me and i don't even know what it means so i'm not even gonna try and break it apart it was too confusing it was literally just written badly i this book is written really well most of this book written to like 80 to 90 percent of like a perfect way to communicate this idea this part of the book any dream sequence anytime our character like starts talking nonsense as well uh to try and just be like oh i'm wacky and people are like it makes me angry that you're wacky um i don't get it it's not it's not well written enough for me to understand what's going on and uh maybe that's just because i'm not around in the time it was written maybe it's just written badly i'm not sure which one it is but i'm more inclined to believe that somebody who's capable of writing well is trying to get his point across through absurdism and absurdism is great but it's also not really well conveyed over a piece of paper uh it's definitely more of a visual thing so you can try and describe it all you want it still just doesn't like form proper images in your head when you try and read it out so maybe that's just me maybe you guys are like yeah no i totally understood his dream sequence it makes perfectly perfect sense it's like a dichotomy of vomiting yeah not me i don't i don't get it um dream sequence over we're moving on from that um he decides now that he's in the dark and he's frustrated and he feels like this is just a vicious cycle that'll never end and people are always going to be manipulating other people and white people are just focused and white people are just like bad and they're going to be continuing to do this and no matter what as long as there's people above and people below they're going to manipulate the people below them the whole point was to free ourselves from this class of society where there's like the rich people in charge of everything and below them everyone else the whole point of the brotherhood was to eliminate that but in the end they were doing the exact same thing as that upper class they were manipulating the lower classes for their own ends for their own benefits they were killing them just the same as the white people who were in charge of the classist system they were just as bad doesn't matter what their motives were in the end they were just as manipulative just as hurtful just as violent and so our character's like this is i'm just done with it i'm done i'm not going to face it anymore i'm going to go into hiding and avoid the situation forever which brings us back to the beginning of the book where our character recognizes he has no past because it's all been burned up in this like trying to find light in this dark area it's all been burned away so he has no past people don't recognize him on the street know who he is he's completely invisible to them because they just see him as this like whatever perceptions they want to project on to him and so he's like okay so i don't exist and the only person i need to be afraid of is ras and it's weird it's like that's that's the beginning of the book that's it takes you right back he's just like locked away finding as much light as he can so he doesn't fade away he fills the place with like light bulbs i guess um [Music] and and i guess that's him that's just he's given up on the world because it's too difficult to try and fight against these natures that he sees and it's just a pattern that repeats itself over and over again he just doesn't want to fight it he doesn't even really want to accept it he just doesn't want to deal with it he wants to ignore it all together and avoid it he wants to not be a part of the system anymore and so he chooses to isolate himself but instead of fading away to nothing he wants to make sure he can still feel that sense of self that sense of like existence because he doesn't want to fade away into nothing he still wants to be a part of that history there's just no way he can comfortably do it in a way that like make makes him feel alive i don't know we're not done with the book again there's still one more chapter the epilogue where it walks you out of the story and maybe we'll clear up some of the things that we've been confused about but for the most part we've closed a lot of loops we've closed a lot of stories and i can't wait to see how it ends it's been pretty good except for that dream sequence and except for when he fell down the hole and was like yelling out like you're in my briefcase didn't make sense um but other than that um yeah no i'm liking the book and it's it's almost over guys we almost made it all the way through i will see you in the final chapter hopefully and i appreciate you sticking with me so long and um yeah we'll see where it goes from here we'll see how it wraps up take care guys bye [Music]

Channel: Micah Reads

Views: 2,939

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Id: RhMWKSualUc

Length: 95min 8sec (5708 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 26 2021