This correlates to blacks spreading in society, only to be "mixed-in" to form a white solution. The invisible man accidentally begins to use paint thinner in place of the black drops and soon the solution is no longer a thick, white paint, but instead a thin gray-like substance. Once again, Ellison alludes to society, only this time the blacks are not absorbed, but instead mixed evenly which indicates the isolation between whites and blacks.
Kimbro, the boss of the company, becomes outraged at the mistake telling the narrator, "you trying to sabotage the company? That stuff wouldn't work in a million years" (Ellison 204). By analyzing the sentence that he said, the isolation between whites and blacks stands out very clearly. Kimbro, one of the leaders of the company, can be compared to a leader of society. He believes that the mixing of black and white, without a result of white can only lead to confusion of society. For this mistakes, Kimbro sends them narrator to work as an assistant in a boiler room. Essentially, Kimbro has placed the narrator back into darkness. With its location in the basement, the boiler room can hide one from the light, or truth, of the real world. .
The narrator seems like had an acceptable life through a fully education which continues with his induction in the Brotherhood and his continuing realizations about reality. The Brotherhood makes the narrator believe that he has found a true place, a place where everyone is working for the improvement of all the people, not just specifically blacks or whites. His first task involves giving a speech in Harlem to a charged crowd. He has yet to fully grasp reality, but instead is only beginning to understand the Brotherhood's reality, that of goals aimed only to the bettering of themselves. At this point, however, the invisible man believes that the Brotherhood is the answer to all his prayers, a group who will accept him and see him for who he is.
