During the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, the one thing that every American had in common was the fact that each was being pushed out of everything. It began with the crash of 1929 when people were uprooted from their jobs and left to make a living unemployed. As a result of men and women's losing their jobs, they were left with no money to make house payments and were then evicted from their own homes. As Roosevelt's New Deal was set into action, relief efforts for the jobless and homeless began. Although the situation was looking promising, it was not quite perfect either. There were centers in almost every community that gave out food and shelter for those who had none, but even these relief centers evicted people after the second or third day, causing them to be back out on the street. Since the care centers did not provide enough help, many resorted to train hopping. They would "stow away" on trains (usually while they were moving), and live there for days, sometimes months. Eventually, this even became impossible. Health risks became apparent as transients passed diseases to passengers and also injured themselves getting on and off the trains. Conductors began booting vagrants from trains, leaving people stranded, once again, with no place to run to. Even the "Okies," made famous by John Steinbeck, were evicted from their homes in the Plains because of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration Acts.
In 1932, fifty-four men resorted to sleeping in a subway station because they had been evicted from their homes. The men were promptly arrested, but jail was better for them than no place at all. In Chicago a year earlier, women were booted from a woman's center (because of overcrowding) and forced to find another place to sleep. They chose Grant and Lincoln Parks in Chicago and were also arrested. Until 1933, blacks were even excluded from relief efforts. Everyone was being excluded or evicted from something.
In Invisible Man, there is a constant theme of expulsion as well. The narrator, Invisible Man, is kicked out of everything. He is first sent away from home to go to school, which he is later expelled from. When he takes a guest of the school, a rich white man, to a whorehouse/bar, the Golden Day, for some whiskey, he is even removed from there when the scene gets too wild. After he is expelled from the college, he is sent to several different places to find a job and is turned down by all of them. When he finally gets a job working with "Liberty Paints," he is removed when he becomes injured in an accident at the factory. He undergoes electric shock therapy following his injury and becomes a new man. He moves in with a woman, Mary, who takes care of him until he is offered a job as a member of the Brotherhood, and the leader, Brother Jack, forces Invisible Man to leave the safety of Mary's home. Later, as he is looking for a friend of his, he walks into a bar but is mistaken for someone else. Someone starts a fight with Invisible Man (or actually starts a fight with the man he is mistaken for), and the bartender asks Invisible Man to leave. Finally, Invisible Man is nearly removed from the Brotherhood itself for disloyalty.
by Jessica Tretler