In chapter twelve of Invisible Man, the main character is finally released from the hospital and sent back to the streets of Harlem. After collapsing on the sidewalk, he meets and is helped by a kind woman named Mary who takes him to her home and lets him stay there until he is well. Although he decides to board there permanently, he must return to the Men's House to gather his personal articles. It is there he thinks he sees Bledsoe. Desiring revenge, he hurls a spittoon at him only to discover that the man is not Bledsoe, but an enraged Baptist reverend. He escapes but is thereafter banned from the Men's House.

Upon returning to Mary's house, he experiences a complete change of character. He becomes extremely angry and mad for revenge on Bledsoe. The chapter ends when he discovers that winter has arrived.

The character appears to be reborn when he exits the subway. As he walked into the sunlight, he "...focused on the scene with wild, infant's eyes." He is no longer the hopeful gullible young man he was before. Instead he becomes depressed and full of a burning desire to avenge himself on Bledsoe.

In conjunction with this theme is a constant reference to water. The sun "boils up," the invisible man falls into a "soft, cool, splash of sleep," and his emotions change from ice to a huge melting flood. As he says "things were indeed awash in my mind." When he hurls the "great, brown, transparent splash" at the reverend, it is a similitude of baptism.

by Inger-Lis Nielsen