Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal - Research Paper Example

English Literature December 09, Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” is a short story about a young, unnamed, African- American man who faces hardships and obstacles because of his color. The short story is written in 1948. It is a moving story about the blindness and realization as well as conformity and uprising. The author depicts through the narrator, the hardship of the African- American and how they at the same time want to please the very people who look down on them as an inferior race because of their color. In the short story, the nameless protagonist struggles to find his place in a society where his people were treated as slaves and untouchables in the early 20th Century. During this time, the black people were facing a severe identity crisis as they were treated as an inferior race. Many of them were slaves of the white people and were viewed by them as people should be looked down or frown upon by the society. There was a constant misunderstanding in the society as the African American struggled to be treated as equals. They were treated as a property and not as a human being who constantly struggled at the hands of their merciless owners. Their quest to reclaim their identity was a long and difficult struggle, especially during the civil war. In the short story, the author uses a nameless young black narrator living in the south to illustrate the theme of racial crisis that the African Americans faced in America during the early 20th century. The story begins with the narrator thinking about the day his grandfather passed away. He vividly remembers the things his grandfather said to him, and these words haunt him for many years. His grandfather said to him, “son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I gave up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome them with yeses, undermine them with grins, agree them to death and destruction, let them swallow you till they vomit or bust wide open. Learn it to the young ones” (Ellison para. 2). Because of what his grandfather told him, the protagonist grows up to be good citizen in the eyes of the white people. He attends schools and become an educated man. In his graduation speech he gives a speech about the importance of greatness and humility. His whole life revolves around a speech. He knows the values and importance of a good speech, but at the same it also made him blind to the reality around him. The speech is central to the short story as it brings out the changes in the narrator’s life. In his first speech he urges his fellow African- American to advance in life through humility and submission. But, his last speech which he gives after the royal battle is completely different from his first speech. He now understands the world around him and the cruelty shown by the white men. The narrator delivers his speech with blood in his mouth and swallowing his blood throughout the speech. The main theme of the short story is the theme of racism. Throughout the short story, the narrator finds himself in a situation where the white men dominate him and taught him how to behave in a society. “The entire story centers on an anonymous, young black man's painful acceptance of his social alienation, which is so extreme that he has virtually no control over the sequence of events that directs the course of his life” (F Callahan 254). Although the narrator tries to refine himself through the ideologies and the values of the white people, they cannot pass his color. The prescribed role of the society limits him to play an inauthentic part in the society. The racial prejudice of others enable them to see only what they want they want to see and not the reality. They limit themselves to see a young black man in a narrator and not a young man who thrives to define his identity through the values of the society. Their limitations place limitations on the African –American abilities and potentials. Even though the narrator is an educated man, the people around him cannot see him as an educated man because of his color. He is expected by the society to behave like their stereotypical of a black man- rough, slave to the white people and out of control. The narrator tries to fit in the white society, but he faces hurdles and hardships in his attempt to fit in as the white people would not allow him to be a part of their society. In Ralph Ellison’s short story, “Royal Battle” we can see several symbols that can fall under the struggles of various obstacles of the African- American. Throughout the story, the symbols are seen in the actions of the narrators, his dialogues and his visions. The narrator describes himself as an “Invisible man”. This symbolizes the social hierarchy of the African American. They cannot be seen in the society as a citizen or even a human being.  The invisibility of the narrator illustrates the fact that society ignores to see him as an individual human being. The harsh reality of this fact is that it has a strong racial prejudice. The African – American cannot be visible to the white people as they were at the bottom of the society where their rights were trampled and their needs ignored. They see them as a slave which should be molded by the white man according to their needs. The participation in the fight between his friends in the party symbolizes how the African American had to fight for their freedom and their rights. The narrator and his friends were invited to a Banquet where they were humiliated by the white people. They were asked to take place in a fight for the entertainment of the white people. This also symbolizes the power of the white people in the society. The African – American were seen as an entertainment and they lacked control and respect in the society. The narrator and his friends engaging in the battle without any resistance showed how the African –American people tried to please the white men. The irony of this situation is that they constantly tried to please the white people even though they were constantly humiliated by the white people in every way. Throughout the Royal battle, the young men are blind folded when they fighting with each other. They are unaware of what was going on in their environment. The narrator begins to feel the change within him when he blindfolded, “I could no longer control my emotions. I had no dignity” (Ellison). The blindfold symbolizes that the narrator was unaware of the reality of life as his need to fit in the white man society blinded him all his life. In the short story, the author chooses to use imagery and satire to depict the facts about racial discrimination. Instead of using statistics and real life incident, he illustrates the suffering of the African – Americans through imagery and satire to allow the readers to step into the horrific experiences of the young unnamed narrator. In the short story, he uses the central event of “Battle Royal” to satirically illustrate the reality and issues of racism throughout the American history. The author also uses imagery to describe the “blonde woman” in the scene of the fight. The narrator describe the blonde woman, “the hair was yellow like that of a new circus kewpie doll, the face heavily powdered and rouged, as though to form an abstract mask, the eyes hollow and smeared a cool blue, the color of a baboon’s butt” (Ellison para. 2). Then he continues “her breast were firm and round as the domes of East Indians temples, and I stood so close as to see the fine skin texture and beads of pearly perspiration glistening like dew around the pink and erected buds of her nipples” (Ellison para. 2). The significance of the blonde woman in the fighting scene can be portrayed as the obsession of the black men. It was thought that the African- American men were obsessed with the white women and this often lead to false accusation of crime committed by the African – American. There were many instances where the young African- American men were wrongly accused of raping white women. “When he sees the magnificent blonde, he knows immediately that he longs to posses her, but he must not touch or even look upon the forbidden white woman… she is the means by which the possibility of freedom is withheld from the nameless young man” (F. Callahan 258). The use of vivid imagery, satire and the first person narration engage the reader the experience the sufferings experienced by the narrator and the African American community. In the short story, the narrator successfully portrays the life and sufferings of the African – American people. It illustrates the social responsibility and the degradation of the African – Americans. Through the simple use of imagery, symbols and first person narration, the narrator illustrates the theme of racial crisis that the African Americans faced in America during the early 20th century. Work Cited Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Powells.com. 1994. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. Ellison, Ralph. Battle Royal. Oppapers.com. 2011. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. F Callahan, John. Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man: A Casebook. Oxford University Press. 2004. Print. Read More