Plan ralph Ellison's Biography Summary of Invisible Man

To some, you are the great white father, to others you are the lyncher of souls, but for all, you are confusion" (Chapter Three).
The narrator returns Mr. Norton to the university with a slight head injury, and the president, Dr. Bledsoe, is outraged at the narrator's decision to show Mr. Norton the community outside of the university. This results in the narrator's expulsion. Dr. Bledsoe gives the narrator eight envelopes with letters to various business owners in New York City to help him find a job, save money, and eventually return to finish his studies.
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Liberty Paints
Unable to secure a job with any of the men recommended by Dr. Bledsoe, the narrator visits the company of the name on the last envelope, a Mr. Emerson. He meets with Mr. Emerson's son who reveals that Dr. Bledsoe's letters of recommendation actually tell the bosses not to hire the narrator, that he will not be re-admitted to the university in the future, and that it is in everyone's best interest for the narrator to remain unaware of these decisions. Mr. Emerson's son recommends the narrator to look for work at a plant called Liberty Paints, which is vaguely connected to the company.
The next day the narrator begins work at the plant as a paint mixer. On the main entrance of the plant is a plaque that reads "Keep America Pure with Liberty Paints" (Chapter ten), and the plant makes white paint (named "Optic White") exclusively for US government buildings. The narrator's job is to mix ten drops of a black substance into the white paint to make it a "glossy white" (Chapter ten). Because the trainer does not tell the narrator which substance to use, the narrator accidentally uses the wrong substance and ruins a batch of paint. As discipline, the narrator is removed from this job and is told to relocate to the basement and work as the assistant to the engineer, Lucius Brockway.
Brockway is an elderly Black man who solely runs the plant's machinery, and he begins teaching the narrator how to monitor the machines' pressure gauges. However, on a lunch break, the narrator runs into a group of fellow Black plant workers who have started a union and distrust the narrator because they think he is a "fink"––their word for someone hired by the company to spy on the union members.
Upon returning to Brockway and telling him about the union meeting, Brockway fires the narrator and threatens to kill him. Brockway believes that the union members are trying to take his job, and he claims they are ungrateful because the white men gave them work. After the two have a fight, Brockway allows the machines to explode, causing the narrator to be sent to the factory hospital, where he undergoes a series of electroshock treatments designed to make him passive.