Tod Clifton and the Sambo Dolls

In Chapter 20 of Invisible Man, the narrator returns to Harlem after three weeks to discover that a shift has occurred. Harlem became a ghost town, and the narrator notices the Brotherhood appears to have changed. Entering the headquarters, the narrator finds himself in search of Brother Clifton, but no one can give him any information regarding his whereabouts. In fact, the narrator gathered that “Brother Clifton had appeared at the district as usual up to the time of his disappearance. There had been no quarrels with committee members, and he was as popular as ever.” (428). The narrator was confused and worried, both with the Brotherhood’s dismissal of his attendance and of Clifton’s apparent absence. The narrator leaves the headquarters in pursuit of a new pair of shoes on Fifth Avenue. By complete coincidence, the narrator finds Tod Clifton on the walk there, but it is not in a setting he ever expected. Tod Clifton is on the side of the road selling Sambo dolls, a complete 180 to the person who just worked at the Brotherhood. The sadness and anger the narrator feels upon seeing Tod Clifton now selling Sambo dolls is a reaction to the perpetuation of a racist stereotype Clifton is actively participating in. 

Sambo dolls are a racist caricature portrayal of black people being controlled by white people on strings, allowing a person to control all of the doll’s movements. Clifton, being the person in this situation who is controlling the dolls, symbolizes how he manipulated the narrator to feel safe in the Brotherhood. The narrator’s initial reaction to Clifton selling these dolls is betrayal and when “[he] looked at the doll and felt [his] throat constrict” (433). Clifton’s intentions at the Brotherhood were not actually aligned with the anti-racist agenda they claimed to stand for, and this realization shocked the narrator. If Tod Clifton truly believed in the message the Brotherhood was trying to spread, he wouldn’t be selling those dolls. 

The narrator would have been affected if a random individual was selling those dolls on the street, but the impact of the seller being Tod Clifton changes the narrator’s trajectory, especially with the Brotherhood. Tod Clifton was a member of the Brotherhood who the narrator deeply admired and respected. As a leader, Clifton was outspoken in the Brotherhood’s agenda and an important figure in their community. This is most likely the reason why seeing Tod Clifton, not only abandon the Brotherhood but leave it to go sell the Sambo dolls, was so shocking. The Brotherhood was one of the places the narrator felt as though he had a community and people who supported him. Seeing Clifton go against this community that the narrator felt such an attachment towards is a leading factor toward his realization that the Brotherhood was, in many ways, all a hoax.