Different Chains

Early on in the book, Bledsoe pulls out an old leg shackle and calls it a "symbol of our progress". Later in the book, we see a very similar scene except for that time, it is the narrator who has a different leg shackle on his desk. As such, I think it would be interesting to compare the scenes, looking at the chains themselves and what is done with them and considering the implications of those differences.
When looking back over the scene with Bledsoe and his chain, the first thing that jumped out to me was that he kept the chain out of sight. In fact, he keeps it buried under a pile of papers as is shown when Wright writes, "Suddenly he reached for something beneath a pile of paper, an old leg shackle". On the other hand, the narrator leaves the shackle he has out in the open on top of his desk. This, of course, draws connections between the narrator and Bledsoe. Most importantly it highlights a key difference between the two in what they do with the chain. However, despite the fact that Bledsoe hides the chain and the narrator leaves it in the open they seem to believe that it represents the same thing: progress. After all, the narrator says, "But I think it's a good reminder of what our movement is fighting against" which is very similar to Bledsoe calling the shackle a "symbol of our progress". As such I think Bledsoe choosing to hide the chain is just like him choosing to wear his mask around people like Norton. On the other hand, the narrator leaves his shackle on his desk because he still hasn't learned to wear a mask. As a result, we get the reaction from Brother Wrestrum which is a reaction that I would imagine Norton having if he saw the chain of Bledsoe's desk.
Which brings me to another point. The Brotherhood seems to be a different version of the college. For one, they are both focused on educating people but only in the sense that they want people to follow a specific set of ideas. Another reason is they both are mainly run by white men. The college has the founders and the Brotherhood has all of the brothers, most of whom are white.  The final is that both have a Bledsoe character. The college actually has Bledsoe but the Brotherhood has the narrator who fills a similar role. Bledsoe claimed that he was truly the one running the college and we are able to see that it was truly the narrator running the Brotherhood in Harlem because when he leaves it falls apart. As such, while the narrator has made progress, he has still ended up in a situation similar to the one he was in in college, if not just a little higher up in the system. 

Metamorphasis

The start of chapter fifteen is eerily similar to the start of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. The Metamorphosis starts with, "One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug." Looking at the start of chapter fifteen the reader can draw several similarities. For one, chapter fifteen starts with the narrator being woken up suddenly by a loud noise. While Gregor wasn't woken upon by a loud noise, he was woken up by "anxious dreams", which seems to mean a nightmare. And in my experience, a nightmare wakes you up suddenly as well. 
Another similarity is that they both wake up and have an itch. Gregor had an itch on his abdomen that was caused by some white spots and the narrator has the old grey skin that's making him itch. Yet another similarity is that they are both in a hurry. Gregor slept past him alarm and is going to be late for work and the narrator says, "I'd have to hurry. There was a lot of shopping to do". The last sort of connection is that Mary and the narrator see and try to kill some cockroaches. While it isn't positive that Gregor turned into a cockroach, the implications in The Metamorphosis makes me believe that Gregor did become a cockroach. As such, the scene where they try to kill the cockroaches made me think of when Gregor's dad tried to kill him.
While many of these similarities could be pure coincidence, chapter fifteen still has its own metamorphosis of sorts. Even though it isn't nearly as drastic as turning into a giant cockroach, the narrator has made a sudden change overnight. The reason we can tell is because the narrator notices the racist statue for the first time. While this might not seem like much, it shows definite change since the narrator hadn't noticed the statue before, not even that night before he went to sleep. The other metamorphosis sort of thing in the chapter is the scratching away the old skin part. That part made me think of a something like a snake that sheds its old skin. So in a way, the start of chapter fifteen showed the narrator shedding at least a part of his old self.