Invisible Son

“I want to cling to that side of innocence, not let the world turn me into…a man. A monster.”

Andre knows that being in the criminal justice system as a Black boy can taint the rest of his life, and he’s afraid that he’ll never be able to escape the mark that it puts on him, especially because of his race.

“It’s like Eric and me leaving tipped everything out of sorts. Since getting out, I’ve thought there must be something wrong with the world itself…but when I lay eyes on Sierra, I know it’s me who doesn’t fit around here.”

Andre is initially terrified when he returns home, as he is not sure if his life will go back to the way it was before. Eric’s disappearance only adds to this fear. Andre spends much of the novel learning to adjust to a new sense of home, even if it is different from before. He will gradually learn to recognize The Importance of a Safe Home.

“He’s poured everything into something nobody here wants anymore: the last relic of an old Black neighborhood.”

Malcolm’s Bookshop is a mainstay of the Albina neighborhood, one that refuses to give in to The Impacts of Displacement and Gentrification. Andre comes to care for it as much as his father does, respecting that it is a piece of their history and an insistence that this community is theirs.

“What was my story? How could I still be me and not leave MacLaren somebody else?”

Andre recalls being in juvenile detention and feeling like no one cared about him as an individual, as all the people in authoritative positions thought that they had the best sense of how to make him “better” without ever consulting him. Andre is mad that he was never given any agency to make choices for himself.

“I don’t agree, but I guess when you can afford to shop at organic markets, that’s not something you care about. The Whitakers don’t get it. It’s about community. About growing something, together.”

The Impacts of Displacement and Gentrification are illustrated in Andre’s thought about how folks like the Whitakers don’t truly understand the purpose of a community garden, which is to come together to share resources. Mrs. Whitaker’s rose bushes form an important contrast to the community garden, becoming an important symbol in the text (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“Each time he says fine, I know it’s anything but fine.”

When Andre and Sierra get sick from COVID-19, Andre’s already concerned about his grandfather, and his father’s statement trying to reassure them has the opposite effect. Andre’s reaction is a reminder that he is still a kid confronted with a global pandemic (See: Background).

“Besides, what it look like for a big Black dude like me to be wearing a mask when I can’t even wear a hoodie without a SWAT team being called? I have more to worry about than this virus to be safe.”

Terry’s comment here highlights the dangers of being Black in the United States, a fact that a mask might only make worse since it obscures part of a person’s face. While he agrees that it is the safest move as far as preventing sickness, he also knows that masking could carry additional risks that white individuals would never have to consider.

“But how I figure, America knows death all too well. Because death and loss lead to someone else’s gain.”

People’s unwillingness to shut down businesses, and then their calls to open them up again even before the pandemic is over, illustrates how some people prioritize profits over health risks. Such mindsets cause frontline workers to be exposed even more frequently to the virus. Andre thinks about how typical this is in the United State, while other countries maintain stricter lockdowns.

“Boogie’s family is dealing with this too, and I realize that this virus is spreading, skipping over people and forming a wider web until it wraps itself around us all. It is twisting and squeezing us until there’s nothing left.”

One of the scariest elements of the pandemic was the fact that COVID-19 is spread through the air, so it is invisible to those it infects. Andre feels trapped by the virus as it swirls unseen around them, containing him once again and having a disproportionate impact on the Black community.

“To not be able to see him in person. To not hug him one more time and feel the strength and care underneath the bark in his voice. To find comfort even in the silence. Now that silence feels empty.”

Losing his grandfather changes Andre’s life forever, and it makes the pandemic even more real as he is forced to watch his grandfather take his last breaths over a FaceTime call. As Andre struggles to find his voice, the “empty” silence makes him feel alone and helpless.

“One more dream deferred.”

Andre fears that his father will never recover from COVID-19, and even in his own grief, he wants nothing more than to make sure that his father’s bookstore continues, foreshadowing that he will make this choice purposely at the end of the novel. His sentence is also a reference to Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem,” which opens, “What happens to a dream deferred?”

“But what used to be a refuge is now a white space that will quickly oust me if they don’t think I belong.”

Andre’s feelings here about Albina Park reflect The Impacts of Displacement and Gentrification. He sees how much his neighborhood has changed as embodied by its park, a place in which Black families used to look out for each other. Now, so many have been pushed out that Andre and other Black citizens are looked on with suspicion in a place that used to be theirs.

“As soon as the data about the virus hitting communities of color harder came out, concern about safety started falling apart. Now the president’s pushing for us to open back up as a country.”

COVID-19 disproportionately affected marginalized communities in the United States. The decision to bring workers back to their jobs or students back to schools was often done in the name of the economy, without a thought that many of those working frontline and essential jobs were people of color, women, or low-income citizens. The lack of consideration given to them illustrates how much their lives are valued by people who profit off of the country running as normal.

“Someone had to go down before it caught up to Eric or Gavin. Maybe they thought you were an easy sell.”

Since Andre is Black and friends with both Eric and Gavin, he became an easy target for the Whitakers to frame for Eric and Gavin’s crimes. People were more likely to believe that a Black boy committed the crime because of racial stereotypes, reflecting the theme of Black Lives Matter and White Communities.

“Let my electronic monitor be silenced. And no longer policed. To vanish.”

As the Black Lives Matter movement rallies in the name of those murdered by police violence, Andre seeks to find a refuge because he is constantly policed by his ankle monitor, Marcus, and Cowboy Jim. He does not get to take a break, and it takes a mental toll on him. Swimming, a key motif in the text, provides a momentary escape.

“Marcus doesn’t ask what happened. He knows what this was, and what it could’ve been.”

Andre is traumatized by nearly losing his life at the hands of the police. He finds comfort in not having to explain to Marcus what happened because, as a Black man, Marcus shares in his experience. Racial profiling and stereotyping occur all the time, and Andre could have been seriously injured or killed in police custody, just like George Floyd.

“Now more people are beginning to recognize saying you’re not racist isn’t enough—you need to be antiracist. I just hope it’ll catch on long enough for change to sustain. Real abolition. The liberation of Black people. We need this to be a marathon everyone is willing to be in. Not just us.”

Though doubtful at first, Andre begins to believe in the Black Lives Matter protesters as they continue to gather and advocate for the importance of reform across society. The call to antiracism is a sign that silence is no longer enough—people need to take a stand to protect people of color in the United States.

“All replaced by nice white families and Black Lives Matter signs. My throat aches from seeing the city with more Black Lives Matter signs than Black people. A city where I don’t belong.”

Andre’s appraisal that so many Black people in his community have been replaced by signs that argue that their lives matter is deeply ironic and exemplary of The Impacts of Displacement and Gentrification. Many white people who pushed out Black families believe that they are doing the right thing by putting up a sign, without really understanding what it means to fight for Black lives.

“Black Lives Matter isn’t just about not getting killed by police. It’s about being able to exist. To thrive. To stop having to be slices of ourselves where it’s acceptable. Having the same chance. Loans, jobs, raises, schools. And yeah, a community garden that’s for us.”

Andre’s comment to Mrs. Whitaker is an important steppingstone for him. He has gone from not believing that the Black Lives Matter protests will have a long-term effect to now advocating for its message to Mrs. Whitaker. By the end of the novel, he will join the protest.

“Sometimes our deepest secrets are ones we don’t let make it to the surface, so we can keep them from others and ourselves. The thought keeps coming back to me […] But really the people she needed protection rom are in her home. People I’m powerless to combat.”

Andre looked up to the Whitaker family before he went to detention, feeling included in their activities and believing that they cared about him. However, as he realizes more and more how they not only do not care about him but also abuse their adopted children, he has to confront The Importance of a Safe Home.

“I blink hard to stop the tears at the instances that felt too close to me, to the people I know. Then my thoughts go back to George. I think about how long that time must’ve felt to him while people watched helplessly as his breath was stolen from him.”

Even though he needs to get home, Andre stays to honor George Floyd with silence during the Black Lives Matter protest. He lets himself feel the tragedy in Floyd’s murder, and he wishes to honor that, knowing that he himself is lucky to have survived his own encounters with the police.

“I feel a part of it as much as I can breathe this fresh air, this crisp night as the rain baptizes us.”

Just after revealing the truth behind the robberies that sent him to detention and Mr. Whitaker’s corruption, Andre feels elated and free, even if the ankle monitor is still active. After feeling so confined for so long, he allows himself to relish that feeling.

“I record people as they run, but not forever. They’ll be back tomorrow. And the next day. But tonight, we retreat, because we still won. We let the world know we’re stronger.”

Andre has to learn to use his voice, and despite the risk, attending the Black Lives Matter protest and exposing Mr. Whitaker’s deceit and corruption shows how powerful it can be when people aren’t afraid to speak up for themselves against injustice.