In Progress Blog Post 2: The Founder

I think the idea of the Founder is fascinating. Our first encounter with the Founder is the narrator’s description of his statue on the University’s campus. There is a great statue of him, a renowned leader, pulling a veil off of a slave. The narrator describes him as “the cold father symbol.” The founder himself had “empty eyes” in his statue, and is a “cold Father symbol” (36).  It makes the narrator wonder, “whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly into place; whether I am witnessing a revelation or a more efficient binding” (36). This is an odd introduction to a character that has supposedly made such great strides to help black people. So off-putting is this description that, until it was explicitly stated, I actually thought the founder was white. The devotion of his followers is practically religious. Homer Barbee’s speech to the founders and the students is very religious in nature. It is like a story from the bible, as he makes out the Founder to be a messiah who overcome great adversity to lead his people. Nonetheless, we do not even know his name. He is so sacred and important, yet he is cold, blind and nameless. Ellison critiques the Founder’s methodology for black advancement. This is clear from the idea that the Founder might be lowering the veil over the slave instead of lifting it. He also suggests that his followers are blind, personified by Homer Barbee who is literally blind. The followers are blind for believing that their meek, subservient attitude will lead them to progress. Mr Norton tells the narrator “He was my friend, and I believed in his vision. So much so, that sometimes I dont know whether it was his vision or mine” (39). To me this means that the Founder’s ideas were not in the interests of blacks,  but from the vision of whites, to lower the veil further over the slave’s eyes. Barbee’s speech contrasts starkly with Dr Bledsoe’s talk with the narrator. Dr Bledsoe is selfish in his power, yet Barbee praises Dr Bledsoe highly. He says”His is a form of greatness worthy of your imitation. I say to you, pattern yourselves after him. Aspire, each of you, to some day follow in his footsteps“ (131). And the narrator repeatedly says that Dr Bledsoe seems to have it all, while still acting subservient to the white folks. He even goes as far as saying that he envisions himself as Dr Bledsoe’s assistant, eventually taking over. Yet we learn in the meeting that Bledsoe merely wears a mask, dealing with the white people to build up his own deceptive yet very real power. It makes me wonder whether the Founder himself was not just playing for his own gain...