Symbolism In Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal

The Great Writers of the Harlem Renaissance era use different forms of writing to expand upon their feelings and emotions towards the events of the time period. The short story, Battle Royal by Ralph Ellison gives a stark and graphic picture of the brutality endured in the pursuit of bettering his life and the others around him. In the story Ralph Ellison gives a speech about the importance of education in the lives of young black men on his graduation day, the speech is so moving that he is invited to give the speech in front of the important white men of the town. However once he is there he is forced to partake in a Battle Royal where he is blindfolded and beaten. Too cap the whole night off the men who fought are forced to wrestle for their

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.

The point of view in Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” comes strictly from his trials and tribulations that he has overcome as a young black writer that began before the nineteen Fifties. Ralph Ellison was a black writer who was born on March 1, 1914 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma only seven years after it had actually became a state. After completing the lengthy research of this man and his works I found that Ellison once had considered becoming a classical music composer after getting the idea from a nineteenth century opera composer named Richard Wagner. The reading of “Battle Royal" from “Literature An Introduction to reading and writing” by Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig Tenth Edition was actually the first chapter of Ellison’s novel

A short analysis of the major theme found in Ellison’s Battle Royal, supported by a literary criticism dealing with the tone and style of the story.

Many authors use symbolism to help their readers grasp the concepts they are trying to convey. They take concrete items or ideas to represent something abstract.

Battle Royal was about how the narrator remembers the advice that his grandfather gave to his father, on his deathbed. The advice that the grandfather gave the father was to “keep up the good fight”, the true words were “Learn it to the younguns”. The family was really alarmed by his last words; it was

The narrator delivers a well-received discourse at his graduation, which he describes by saying, "On my graduation day I delivered an oration in which I showed that humility was the secret, indeed, the very essence of progress. (Not that I believed this -- how could I, remembering my grandfather? -- I only believed that it worked)" (Ellison 938). The acceptance of the narrator's speech affords him the opportunity to address an assembly of prominent members of the white community, but first he must survive the Battle Royal, a boxing war in the ring against fellow African Americans. The Battle Royal is symbolic of the fight that many blacks wage against themselves to gain money, position, and prominence. The narrator is forced to participate in a battle against blacks before he speaks. This conflict illustrates a powerful tool used by the southern white man, by encouraging infighting, the African American community is kept from uniting, in unity, freedom could be gained.

"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

Symbolism, by definition, is when concrete people, places, or things are used to substitute or represent abstract ideas. Symbols for symbolism can be any object or thing in the story that the reader believes represents more than what it literally is. Authors use symbolism to hint about characters’ lives, and they also use it to help establish a backstory for a character, if it has not been described already. Symbolism, when looked at closely and with a larger perspective, can also show an underlying theme for the story. Terry Brooks, in The Sword of Shannara, uses a forest setting as a symbol of fear, mysteriousness, and/or death.

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest" (Wiesel). "Battle Royal," a short story by Ralph Ellison, marks the resolution of the Civil War and slavery in the United States. The narrator's grandfather, who was freed from slavery 85 years earlier, had just died. The narrator was chosen to give a speech in an ensemble of rich whites. In the beginning, it seems as though he's hesitant on reciting his speech, but he is blindfolded with multiple others and put into a boxing ring where all of them fight. Not to mention, he was beaten badly.

It is natural in all humans to try to impress the people that they revere, and often times, this admiration can be blinding. Despite his grandfather’s dying words being advice to wage war on the whites, the narrator of James Ellison’s “Battle Royal” experiences this craving for approval from the esteemed whites of his town. All of the narrator’s troubles begin with the preconceived notion that the whites are superior to the blacks. The short story, told in hindsight, displays the narrators quest to impress the whites with his commencement speech, and the hurdles he has to jump through for their approval. Through his usage of voice, the author shows how blacks made such an effort to impress the whites, whom they thought were superior, that they neglected to stand up to the injustices that they were faced with.

One of “Battle Royal’s” main purposes was to provide an insight into the pre-Civil Rights era (which was the current time for Ellison) and exemplify the human atrocities that occurred. The short story shows the ways in which the white

Battle Royal, a short story written by Ralph Ellison, is about a young black man who delivers an astounding speech about the trials that young people faced, and in order to continue telling the speech that would change other peoples lives, he has to go through an amazing ordeal of pain and trial.

In Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal" he creates a vivid image of the racial differences between whites and blacks. In the short story there are multiple signs of symbolisms, and metaphors. A specific example that caught my attention is the blonde dancer. While trying to find the significance of the dancer, I found other aspects of symbolism. Such as the fact the lady was never referred to as white, but blonde, however, we naturally assume she’s white, or the flag on the lady dancer is supposed to represent liberty, and yet liberty is not being represented at all. Aside from her skin color, or body art, we may ask, what exactly is the purpose of the naked dancer?

Alfred Whitehead, an English mathematician and philosopher, once said, “Symbolism is no mere idle fancy or corrupt degeneration: it is inherent in the very texture of human life.” In almost every story, there is some form of symbolism being used. Sometimes it is used in the characters, the setting, certain objects, the weather patterns, etc. Not only does symbolism have a great effect on the story itself, but it affects how the story is perceived. “Young Goodman Brown”, “The Minister’s Black Veil”, and “The Birthmark” are all full of many forms of symbolism. The themes of these stories are shown through the symbolism of the characters, their traits, and the objects.