Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal" Essay example

   The narrator in "Battle Royal," by Ralph Ellison, is confused and disillusioned. He is black man trapped in a world of cruelty and social inequality with nobody to guide him. He is being ripped apart in two directions by the advice of his grandfather and by the wishes of the white society which he longs to please. While attempting to satisfy their wishes, he forgets what is most important- his own dignity.

     The second humiliating experience was after the battle royal match. Money is lying on an electrified carpet, “I lunged for a yellow coin lying on the blue design of the carpet, touching it and sending a surprised shriek to join those rising around me. I tried frantically to remove my hand but could not let go. A hot, violent force tore through my body, shaking me like a wet rat. The rug was electrified’ ”(246). This quote demonstrates the amount of humiliation that the young man is put through, because of his grandfathers dying words he counties to the end when he gives his speech.

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

The bank represents the white stereotype of a good slave, a slave who treasures every little coin. This racial stereotype even follows the narrator around even when he tries to throw away the bank; a person returns it to him. It is difficult for the narrator to overcome this degrading stereotype when he can’t even get rid of the bank. Because of these degrading symbols, the narrator feels invisible. These racial stereotypes depict how the white people believe African-Americans (including himself) should behave. He tries to fight the racial stereotypes created, but it just forces him to act counterfeit. Both of these symbolize show racial stereotypes that follow the narrator throughout the book.

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

Throughout the story there is circus imagery, which is significant to the story in several ways. A circus is commonly known for being the entertainment for a large group of people and is also characterized by a variety of acts and events designed to arouse the awe and fascination of the crowds. The young African-American men in the story are forced to participate in a variety of events designed for the sole purpose of entertaining the crowd of white men. This is effective because it is very compelling in the way whites used to treat blacks. They looked at them such as "circus animals" and felt empowered to do whatever they wanted, making them look like clowns.

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 story I have chosen to write my literary analysis on is Battle Royale", a short story by Ralph Ellison, written in 1952. This short story is the opening of a larger novel written by Ellison it is a story about a young black man, who has recently graduated high school. During the course of this story the boy’s grandfather dies and leaves the young man with some last words that he did not initially understand but close to the end of the story the words meaning become clearer to him. He lives in the south and is invited to give a speech at a gathering of the towns leading white citizens. Then the young man is made to take place in a battle royale with nine other young black men. Where they are treated very poorly and forced to endure terrible hardships. After taking part in the battle the young man gives a speech in front of a predominantly white crowd where he slips and says something that disturbs the crowd, the young man quickly corrects himself and then is praised by the people as a good black young man. The argument that I will be trying to address here is did the young man make the correct decision by accepting the white peoples praise and not speaking out against the injustice he had just been forced to endure. The reaction of the main character in this story depicts how not speaking up against injustice or racism is sometimes the best course of action.

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.

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

   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.

Ralph Ellison’s excerpt “Battle Royal” from his novel “Invisible Man” reveals the African American’s struggle for social equality. It was written during the Cold War and Civil Rights movement and made an impact in the literature world and won an award. Ellison never provides a name for the narrator who refers to himself as the invisible man. The story begins with the narrator’s grandfather on his death bed instructing on how to deal with white people. The narrator felt this advice was more of a curse than helpful. The determination exhibited by the narrator during his encounter at Battle Royal is impressive. The level of abuse endured in his pursuit to deliver his graduation speech is both baffling and admiring.

“Battle Royal” begins with a young man trying to do everything he can to make sure he receives his scholarship. He endures so many obstacles during that short period of time. He had to fight during the battle royal, then he had to get electrocuted all because he wanted to perform the speech that he was hoping to get him the scholarship that will allow him to go to college. Although he should not have been a part of the fight, the

The young black boy does not understand why he is praised for behaving in a way his grandfather defines as treachery. He is forced to behave the same but at the same time, is guilty. He feels like his behavior is against the wishes of the white people. He is at this point confused because he would not understand why

In the story of “Battle Royal” there are several themes that run through the story, the most important theme is racism, with ambition and humility being secondary themes. The story begins with the narrator clarifying his grandparents were once slaves and “about eight five years ago they were told they were free, united with other of our country in everything pertaining to the common good, and in everything social, separate like the fingers of the hand” (Ellison 1). It was the grandfather that told the narrators father, “Son, after I’m gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction” (Ellison 1). Told of his grandfather’s last word, the narrator endeavors to live up to the expectations of his grandfather’s powerful words spoken upon on his death bed. “Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, le ‘em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.” (Ellison 1). In the story, a young black man gives a speech on the day of his graduation, all the time thinking, “I showed that humility was the secret, indeed, the very essence of progress”. He remembered what his grandfather had said before he died, and he felt that humility worked. The young black man was praised and was invited to give his speech to the leading