Gauging Brockway

From the nutty old guy description to the fact that there's a "Danger" sign on the door to where he works, Brockway is presented as a pretty crazy character. It's never clear to the narrator how he should handle Brockway, but he always gives the narrator a sense of uneasiness. After all, it's kind of difficult to trust an old man when he says that he's the only reason the factory is operating, especially if he doesn't give off the "engineer" vibe.

But what if we look at the situation from another point of view? What does Brockway think about his position in life and in the factory? He seems to be happy with his job, but what is the cost of that happiness?

For one thing, it doesn't seem like Brockway gives off the "freedom" vibe. While I'm sure that there a million implications to how he's an old black guy that's making Liberty Paints run properly, I find it interesting how it's him in particular. According to Brockway himself, he's the only person who can properly operate the machines to make the paint. He even touts how the factory's Founder asked him to come out of retirement since no one else could figure out how to make the furnaces run properly. He may get a sense of pleasure out of being the only person capable of doing his job, but isn't that just another form of entrapment? After all, he's effectively locked himself into this working position for the rest of his life. He's kind of similar to Bledsoe, in that respect. Both of them are in a position of power, but neither of them have a way of getting out. They're both trapped at where they are.

Brockway also likes to constantly point out how he knew the factory's founder and helped build it from the ground up. While some of the story may be a bit unreliable, such as him knowing every single nut and bolt of the pipings, I think that his story is believable enough to have some truth behind it. I find it believable that he knew the Founder and possibly helped build the factory, and that the Founder even asked him to run the engine room and paint machines. But then that opens up a whole other slew of subliminal meanings. The Founder put him in the basement of the factory, fronted by a "Danger" sign on the door? The dynamic between Brockway and the Founder is really odd in this regard. What does it mean that Brockway takes such pride in a job that seems so demoralizing from our perspective?

To finish off, I'd like to make one more somewhat extant comparison between Brockway and Bledsoe. In Brockway's case, it seems like the Founder put him in his position of control, but in doing so knowingly took away his freedom. Does the same thing apply to Bledsoe? After all, he knew the Founder of the college. Did the college Founder give Bledsoe control, just so he didn't have any control over his life? I'm probably going a little too far with this comparison, but it's difficult not to draw similarities and see if they connect. Ellison may be using all of these inception-like ideas to show how gaining freedom or succeeding as a black man doesn't mean anything; no matter what, it's all a part of a giant game being played by the white people.

Then again, I might just be overthinking this too much. But hey, it's fun to go crazy with Invisible Man. Maybe Brockway had the right idea all along.