After Brother Clifton’s funeral, several Brotherhood committee members, including Brother Jack and Brother Tobitt, confront and chastise the narrator for having organized Brother Clifton’s funeral, demanding to know why he felt justified in organizing this event without consulting other members of the Brotherhood.
The narrator tries to explain his actions, but Brother Jack interrupts him repeatedly, comparing him to Napoleon and accusing him of organizing a hero’s funeral for a traitor. The narrator tries in vain to make the Brotherhood see that the issue is not whether Brother Clifton was a traitor, but that he was an innocent, unarmed man shot down in cold blood by a policeman. Finally, exasperated with Brother Jack’s rhetoric, the narrator taunts him by calling him “the great white father.” At this remark, Brother Jack becomes so irate, his glass eye pops out.
At the end of the meeting, Brother Jack instructs the narrator to report to Brother Hambro for additional training. Although the narrator intends to follow his instructions, he realizes that the Brotherhood is not at all the visionary organization he once thought it was. Yet he still feels that the group at least gives some meaning to his life.
