Afro-Pessimism InBattle Royal, By Ralph Ellison

African Americans are fighting for their lives in a war that they do not even know exist. In Ralph Ellison’s short story, “Battle Royal,” this idea is made clear by the narrators struggle to be seen as an equal among the white men in the story. Ellison uses a white woman, a blindfold, and an electric rug as symbols to illustrate the struggles African Americans face.

"Battle Royal" gives the reader a frightening look at just how society looks at blacks. In the

He wants his readers to imagine the pain and humiliation of the ill treatment that African Americans endure on a daily basis. King writes of vicious mobs lynching people’s mothers and fathers, policemen killing people’s brothers and sisters, a man and his wife not receiving the proper respect they deserve because of their skin color, and the notion that African Americans feel insignificant within their communities; this is why these peaceful demonstrators of whom the clergymen attack “find it difficult to wait” (King, 20). However, King believes that soon, injustice will be exposed, like “a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up” (King, 30). This vivid description helps arouse an emotional response, driving shame into the hearts of his white readers.

(An emotional appeal to the audience) We are all a prostitute to something in this world doing things we don't want to do just to continue in life dealing with the forces that are constantly in our way. This is a relentless reality to the African-American people throughout the history of the United States. How much is one willing to let white men abuse and torment themselves as they dangle the keys to success right in front of oneself, all the while laughing at this “animal” that they see as nothing more than an inferior human to that of themselves as they believe that their skin color makes them superior to all of those unlike them. Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal is a story of just that, as a young, black man yearns to learn who, and what, he is in this world. He takes his grandfather's dying words to his soul of “I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, un-determine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction” (Ellison 278) even then feeling uncomfortable and guilty. Through this young man's journey to find himself in this world that still laughs at the notion of racial equality, Ellison uses a viscous cast of society's highest “class”, along with men, who are both like and unlike him, who scrap at the scraps of leftovers from these white men to show this young, black man how worthless he is to white men and teach him an important lesson in his first step forward in his dive to the heart to find himself as person and the start of his journey in life as he faces racism

Ralph Ellison’s short story “Battle Royal,” is set in the deep south during the late 1940’s era. Racial tension in the south has always been exorbitantly high. In the 1940’s keeping segregation is still a priority for half the population in the southern states, slavery may be abolished but the physical act of welcoming African-Americans as “Americans” is far from the minds of many Americans. Ellison’s short story accentuates this idea of racial tension and social standards, between the elites of the town and the very intelligent former high school graduate. The story touches on a sensitive topic that America has yet to realize, and it is that people that are considered to be minorities can be subjected to be oppressed, based on their

The 1940s represent a decade of turmoil for the United States in general. Perhaps no group of people struggled more during that time period, however, than African Americans. With racial segregation prevalent, particularly in the South, opportunity was lacking for African-Americans. However, Ralph Ellison suggests in “Battle Royal” that due to the lack of racial unity among black men as well as a certain amount of naiveté, black men prevented themselves from succeeding more so than their white oppressors.

Black men in America are in a constant state of one-sided battling. It has become a never ending struggle where they must continuously fight the odds set against them. Ralph Ellison conveys this message in his short story “Battle Royal” using two main literary devices. Learned diction is Ellison’s main tool for demonstrating this fight, using it as both a method of describing the intensity of the character’s conflicts and as a weapon to defend himself in his own fight. The other device is the author’s extremely frequent use of overwrought similes. For how else is Ellison to compare the fight he and every other black man has faced than by comparing it to what anyone else would know?

“Vicious mobs lynch” and “drown your sisters and brothers” shows the fear that individuals live through each day. Equally, the “hate-filled policemen” support these unjust actions, meaning African-Americans lack any support and protection. Citing “twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty” reveals the hardships they must endure due to this discrimination. Similarly, King reminisces:

Institutionalized racism remains as one of the dominate ways in which one race stays in control over other races, in “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison its illustrated socially, also economically in African Americans but it’s displayed through the men. In other words, the history of battling to survive and overcome institutionalized racism is the same as the battle of slavery the protagonist and is family are giving the tools to survive before the patriarch of the family dies. These two issues of social and economic are just two ways in which the elite whites kept African Americans in servitude and bondage of the mind, having them to think they couldn’t achieve greatness in life except for what was allowed by the dominate race. The narration within “Battle Royal” depicts a struggle that is passed down from one generation to the next until an elder in the family leaves a plan of survival.

Ellison’s use of language helps imply the animalistic treatment of the young fighters (German). A writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, Michael Eric Dyson, is thoroughly amazed by Ellison’s wordplay by saying, “He spoke elegantly of the beautiful absurdity of the American identity (Dyson).” The choice of words Ellison navigate through America’s history of ideas (Dyson). The portrayal of fighters emphasize the fact that “blacks” were socially inferior. White’s would of never thought to view blacks in the same “league” with them. At this time, no one could imagine the battle royal happening with white’s fighting with an animalistic intentions, while rich, black men sat smoking cigars, cheering for brutality. By using nouns and adjectives, the description of the young fighting has a deeper, harsher connotation.

In “A Protest Against the Burning and Lynching of Negroes” by Booker T. Washington, the author uses Rhetorical Strategies such as Logos, Pathos, and Ethos to show how he feels when many of his race were being common, he uses them in a way to show his perspective of what the government has done.To begin, the author uses Logos to show a logical statement of how white people can do anything they want, this made the lives of black people feel unfair and how the white people made others groups such as KKK to take the laws into their own hands.The law is only disregarded when a white person is concerned, and not a black person, it is used to show the inequality between these two group of people.“The laws are as a rule made by the white people and their execution is in the hands of the white people; so that there is little chance of any guilty colored man escaping.”White people has been controlling the environment ever since the black people arrived, this making it unfair for any black people to escape being found guilty.

"Battle Royal" "Battle Royal," by Ralph Ellison was a very difficult piece of literature for me to understand. As a little background information, Ellison was very much into music (228). He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on March 1, 1914 (221). Different themes are presented throughout this short story, which reflect different views that Ellison had at the time that he wrote this essay. One boy is invited to speak at local men’s club where he will deliver his graduation speech. As I go on, I will discuss the nature of the short story and how it affected me. The narrator’s view of this entire situation at the men’s club is kind of humiliating which will later set the stage for events that will

Although slavery had been abolished eighty-five years earlier, the black community found themselves in a similar predicament as before in terms of racial inequities, discriminations and, overtly white supremacy in every capacity of life; in response, the black community formulated a strategy of appeasement and become submissive to survive in this pseudo “Post-Racial Society”. However, in Ralph Ellison’s short story “Battle Royal” he further asserts this claim;

An author uses setting, character, plot, theme, language, and point-of-view to express their thoughts into their writing, and as a reader, one perceives what they write. Each characteristic of a story further develops the ideas differently. The setting of a story can develop the idea further with the time frame of the story, giving the reader a historic background; whereas the language can distinguish the mood and tone of the story. By looking at all these elements of a story, people are able to find a central idea of a piece. In “Battle Royal,” Ellison expresses the idea of segregation throughout the story, mainly focusing on the social responsibility of the whites and blacks with the conflicts that take place, externally and internally.

The whites are powerful enough to force the “lesser” black group act in ways they wouldn’t normally, such as fight and subject themselves to electrocution: “A hot, violent force tore through my body, shaking me like a wet rat. The rug was electrified” (Ellison, 1417). Although the narrator is a member of the community, he has no control because “colonial discourse acted as a vehicle for power” (Wisker, Colonial Discourse). Wisker argues colonial discourse is “controlled by those in power, excludes critiques which identify the exploitation of those colonized peoples it describes.” Such the exploitation and abuse is apparent in “Battle Royal.”