Symbolism In Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal

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.

Both narrators are young blacks who run into adults. The narrator from “Battle Royal,” identifies himself as a “ginger-colored nigger”(pg.1152) who has distinguished himself in school, and who has given a superb speech at

In Ralph Ellison’s short story “Battle Royal,” the experiences of a Black narrator, specifically those molded by the brutal hands of anti-black violence, paint a pessimistic outlook on race relations and the ability for marginalized individuals to overcome the oppressive structures embedded in civil society. To construct this commentary, the text employs symbolism to communicate the ways in which systemic and structural anti-blackness suppresses and oppresses Black communities.

Many history altering events took place during this continuing struggle. More symbolism appears during the fight when the nature of the audience changes for the worse. Through his description of whites from a high social standing watching the battle of ten blacks in a ring, Ellison shows the attitude and approach those in charge of running system have towards ethnic minorities – in this case, African Americans. As the battle intensifies, the enthralled audience become more engrossed and began foul mouthing the fighters in their animalistic frenzy. The total disregard for human dignity shown by this reaction is a prime example of the stance of superiority assumed by the ruling majorities over minorities.

(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

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.

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

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.

After the boys collect their winnings which are mostly worthless brass tokens, the narrator can now give his speech. He is exhausted and beat up after the whole ordeal but attempts to deliver his speech nonetheless. As he read his speech the men seemed to ignore and interrupt him rudely. The narrator continued to deliver his speech, speaking louder and more emotionally. He became frustrated at the crowd and misspoke, using the words, “social equality.” ( ) Suddenly the crowd went silent. These words angered the crowd but the narrator was quick to correct it. He apologized for misspeaking and said the incident was due to him swallowing blood. The crowd forgave him. At the end of the speech he was offered a briefcase with a scholarship to college. Inside the briefcase there was a letter saying, "Keep This Nigger-Boy Running." ( ) This short story highlights the terrible nature of racism and how it can turn people into savages.

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

Battle Royal is a short story that metaphorically address many such issues such as racial discrimination. The Author, Ralph Ellison, uses symbolism such as blindness and the concept of initiation to compare the world to a real life battlefield. Ellison intended to emphasize, both passive and aggressive elements of battle is necessary to achieve the American Dream.

The excerpt “Battle Royal” from the novel Invisible Man connects to many other poems’ mood and tone from its era. Zora Neale Hurston’s short story How It Feels to Be Colored Me shows relation to “Battle Royal” by its overall tone. In the stories the main characters are both put into uncomfortable positions dealing with racism. Both Zora and the narrator of “Battle Royal” are determined to remain themselves to deal situation at hand. “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background… But through it I remain myself” (How It Feels to Be Colored Me paragraph 7). The same tone is held in “Battle Royal”, “I will stand on the mg to deliver my speech…I tremble with excitement, forgetting my pain” (Invisible Man). Along the same

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

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 Battle Royal established the relationship between white power, male power, and (hetero)sexual power, the ‘self-grounding presumptions’ of dominant subjectivity, as central to the narrator’s embrace of abjection. Furthermore, it equates these structures or power with the visibility of disempowered bodies. (Jarenski 89)