Circus By Ralph Ellison Essay

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.

In the short stories “The Lesson,” by Bambara and “Battle Royal,” by Ralph Ellison, the authors use the idea of race determining the social structure in America where blacks are the socially inferior. In the short story “The Lesson,” by Bambara through fictional characters makes a serious social commentary. In the short story “Battle Royal,” by Ralph Ellison shows weakness and disorder of black identity in the early 1900s through the subjection of his young black narrator to a series of monstrous treatments by white man.

In the chapter “Battle Royal” form Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Children’s Rhymes by Langston Hughes, the colored narrators are put down by society, they have disadvantages because of their skin color. Promises were made and broken, such as liberty and justice.

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 opportunity to get money, but they had to endure the physical pain of being electrocuted in the process. The white men again are amused by these activities just as men throughout the years were amused by the activities of African American's. The blacks were given things but with a price attached to it just as the boys were.

In the beginning chapters of the book, we get a glimpse of the typical home and community of an African American during segregation. Many Africans Americans were too adjusted to the way of living, that they felt

These battles are directly represented by the barbarous fighting by 10 boys in a ring, being witnessed by whites in high social standing. Totally engrossed by the fighting these men yelled cruel things and became frenzied. This is representative of the how our nation’s white population treated African Americans for many years. Often they took a stance of authority, feeling superior to the black minorities. This belief is portrayed by the men’s angered actions toward the boys.

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

Written in a brilliant way, Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” captures the attention of the reader for its multi-layered perfection. The novel focuses an African American living in Harlem, New York. The novelist does not name his protagonist for a couple of reasons. One reason is to show his confusion of personal identity and the other to show he is “invisible”. Thus he becomes every Black American who is in search of their own identity. He is a true representative of the black community in America who is socially and psychologically dominated everywhere. The narrator is invisible to others because he is seen by the stereotypes rather than his true identity. He takes on several identities to find acceptance from his peers, but eventually

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

The treatment of blacks is frightening. The white society really believes that blacks deserve no better. In his article “Imagery in the ‘Battle Royal’ Chapter of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man,” Norman German states, “the animal imagery graphically highlights Ellison’s theme that when one sex or race treats another as an object or animal, both become dehumanized or bestial” (1). Ellison stated, “Much of the rhetorical and political energy of white society went toward proving to itself that we were not human” (German 2). The white men in “Battle Royal” not only treat the young black men as animals, or objects, but also the stripper. Therefore, they become animals themselves.

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

The entertainment not only came from the black men fighting over coins, but little did the blacks know, the rug was electrified. The narrator tells us “I lunged for a yellow coin lying on the blue design of the carpet, touching it and sending a surprised shriek to join the rising around me. I tried to frantically to remove my hand but could not let go. A hot, violent force tore though my body, shaking me like wet rat. The rug was electrified.” (27). The white men make the narrator feel inferior to them by making him the course of their entertainment. They make him feel ashamed and worthless. His feeling of invisibility not only comes from the belittling remarks they make, and what he has to do, but also the thought that the whites have that much control over what he is doing.

   I am an invisible man. With these five words, Ralph Ellison ignited the literary world with a work that commanded the respect of scholars everywhere and opened the floodgates for dialogue about the role of African-Americans in American society, the blindness that drove the nation to prejudice, and racial pluralism as a forum for recognizing the interconnection between all members of society regardless of race.

The boy looks at the creeping, bloodied men, and draws a connection to circus clowns, and his father’s slaves who would “creep upon their hands and knees for his amusement” (Bierce 59). The boy thought the retreating Union

The novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison depicts the journey of a young African American man finding his way in the world during the Harlem Renaissance. The unnamed protagonist encounters many obstacles, such as the varying ideas of others, that skew his view of how things are supposed to be in the world. As the protagonist attempts to find the truth about his identity, his naivete causes him to become thrown off as he is confronted by new ideas that he does not fully understand. This process causes him much turmoil as he constantly turns to others to provide the guidance that only he can give himself. Throughout the novel the protagonist struggles to find his own identity as he wholeheartedly adopts the ideas of others, Ellison utilizes