Battle Royal By Ralph Ellison Analysis

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

Racism is an issue that blacks face, and have faced throughout history directly and indirectly. Ralph Ellison has done a great job in demonstrating the effects of racism on individual identity through a black narrator. Throughout the story, Ellison provides several examples of what the narrator faced in trying to make his-self visible and acceptable in the white culture. Ellison engages the reader so deeply in the occurrences through the narrator’s agony, confusion, and ambiguity. In order to understand the narrators plight, and to see things through his eyes, it is important to understand that main characters of the story which contributes to his plight as well as the era in which the story takes place.

The white man is also trying to uphold his power and control over the situation by gaining the narrator’s trust. The narrator is naïve in his understanding when he receives a leather brief case and a scholarship after delivering his speech: “My fingers a-tremble, I complied, smelling the fresh leather and finding an official-looking document inside. The document was a scholarship to the state college for Negroes. Although the white men provide the narrator with a scholarship, it is for the black college, which is undoubtedly inferior to any white college. Another instance in which the narrator does not fully understand the intentions of the white men occurs when the black men are ordered to scramble for money on a rug after the battle. It appears that the men are going to receive money for participating in the battle; however, the rug is electrified and the coins are not real. The white men are merely being entertained at the expense of the black men, which the narrator realizes this once he is electrocuted when he tries to pick up a coin. The narrator’s figurative blindness to the intentions of the white men makes the struggle for equality even harder.

The story “Battle Royal”, by Ralph Ellison is about a young black man who has to overcome racial inequalities. The story opens with his grandfather dying words and leaving the family with words that stick with the main character for life. The main character, whose name in not mentioned, is very intelligent and because of this the prominent white businessmen ask him to give a speech at a hotel. Upon his arrival, the white men put him through many humiliating acts for their enjoyment. There is a boxing match and also an electric carpet, but the boy preservers through them all. At the end he is finally given a chance to deliver his speech. Although the men are being inattentive, the superintendent rewards the boy

At the beginning of “Battle Royal,” the author, Ralph Ellison writes “…first I had to discover that I am an invisible man!” (1149). The narrator of the story has come to feel this way as a result of the actions of the white men in the story. The men seem to see the narrator’s physical being, however they lack to gain a sense of what he is able to accomplish. They refuse to acknowledge the greatness in which he is capable of due to the color of his skin. Because the story takes place during the early 1900’s, racism plays a prominent role within everyday lives. The main event which may elaborate on this statement is when the protagonist is granted the opportunity to deliver a speech, which is very important to him. The racism occurs during this event when his audience flat out ignores him and continues to talk over him until he says something that they don’t necessarily agree with. The white men seem to instantly take charge of his fate and tear the protagonist down in order to show that they are the ones who hold all of the power. This keeps the main character feeling helpless and a sense of invisibility.

The electrified rug is another important piece in this story. The boys are given the opportunity to take bills and coins off of a rug, after the battle royal has been completed. As they grab for the money they receive jolts of electricity from the rug. The boys find it extremely hard not to reach for the money even though they will go through much pain in doing so. These activities again represent the African American’s struggle for equality. Even though segregation became an eventual realization the blacks had to suffer much. Blacks attending schools with whites still had to endure racial prejudices and misjudgments by much of the population. The boys in "Battle Royal" were given the

of the blind hatred of blacks at the time this story took place. By blind hatred

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.

Ultimately, the narrator realizes because of racial stereotypes, people see him for how they want to see him; he decides to be invisible. During the battle royal scene, the black men, including the narrator, transform into the racial stereotype of a violent animal, “The boys groped about like blind cautious crabs crouching to protect their mid-sections, their heads pulled in short against their shoulders…” (23). The men don’t realize they are acting like servile savages because they are wearing blindfolds; they are blinded by the truth. In addition, when the African-Americans try to collect the fake coins on the electrified ground, again they

Ellison once said, “Our social mobility was strictly, and violently, limited” (German 2). The black society is portrayed in a special way in “Battle Royal.” The boxing ring of the Battle symbolizes the confinement of blacks in their society (German 2). The whites are always superior, and the blacks are constantly held back and left fighting. “The story’s title, ‘Battle Royal,’ suggests that the incidents described in the narrative are just one battle in the ongoing racial war” (Brent 2). There is constant controversy between whites and blacks, so far as it is described as a war. In the grandfather’s speech, he describes it as a war, and he states that he wants the narrator to “keep up the good fight.” He then explains how the narrator should do so; he orders him “Live with your head in the lion’s

The native Africans' heritage and way of life were forever altered by the white slave drivers who took them into captivity in the 18th century. Along with their freedom, slaves were also robbed of their culture and consequently their identities. They became property instead of people, leaving them at the hands of merciless slave owners. Their quest to reclaim their stolen identities was a long and difficult struggle, especially in the years following the Civil War and the subsequent release of their people from bondage. In Ralph Ellison's 1948 short story "Battle Royal," he uses the point of view of a young black man living in the south to convey the theme of racial identity crisis that faced African Americans in the United States

“Battle Royal” conveys different socio economic issues. Though Ellison may be talking about the world around him, I think he may be relaying it to some personal issues, he dealt with. Either way they both intertwine, to form this character, this man with no name. The man seems to be a rather bright individual who seems to get caught up in ongoing situations causing the man to suffer tremendously. The situations test inequality, humiliation, and even conformity; the keys to the ongoing issues of the man.

Many Southern writers of different races expressed views of Southern History through literature with gender. The short story “Battle Royal’ by Ralph Ellison entails about a mature narrator recalls the instruction that his dying grandfather offers and his remembrance of a painful treachery that corroborates the grandfather’s advice. The narrator’s question of individuality is not constrained to the simple twenty years of his own life, but to the lives of his grandparents, who were born as slaves and freed eighty-five years before. The Grandfather trusted that they were separate but equal and that they had accomplished equality with whites in spite of segregation. On his deathbed, the narrator’s grandfather offers him odd and unsettling guidance. He communicates to the narrator that he has considered himself a conspirator his entire life. The narrator recollects delivering the class speech at his high school graduation. The speech advocates humility and obedience as key to the advancement of black Americans. It proves such a success that the town orchestrate to have him deliver it at a meeting of the community’s leading white citizens. The narrator comes to the gathering, but was given orders to take part in the “battle royal” the evening’s amusement. The fight took place in a room with a boxing ring. After the fight, coins were tossed on a rug to be collected by the fighters. After all of this, the narrator

Implying that the battle, resonates to that of the racial conflict and issues of social standing; which help to solidify the meaning of Ellison’s Marxist composition. To complicate the point, the title of the book is “Battle Royal”, alluding to the great conflict that the narrator was lured into; while juxtaposing the aliments of the Black community endless struggle towards finding recognition and equity in society. Therefore; asserting the claim that the battle, in the passage contextualize to the most core message of the novel proving the conflicting aspect shown by the story and how these sentiments were just specific, to the narrator but, to millions of African-Americans around the country; more in depth, this epic battle aligns with his (the narrator) grandfather’s message foreshadowed earlier in the passage; proclaiming the need for such hostilities, to foster the fight for social recognition of equality to that of the “fairer race” (Ellison pg. 294). The conflict also provokes the pursuit for freedom of future black generation towards recognition and other factors of social equity, which adds to the entity of the story. this addition exhibited when the narrator overcomes his battles later in the book when he’s in his dark apartment and he realizes he’s been blind in the entirety of his life, he

"Battle Royal" is the story I chose to write about and it is written by Ralph Ellison. The reason that I chose this story is because the way the author uses symbolism. The author tries to show through symbolism that there is a different meaning than what the story says. In the beginning, the story seems to be about one black boy's struggle to get ahead in a white society. He tries' to accomplish this goal by living to his grandfathers dying words. His grand father told him to "live with your head in the lion's mouth, I want you to overcome ‘em with yes, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open." What he meant was his grandfather was telling him