Culture and Identity in Battle Royal - Research Paper Example

Culture and Identity Overview ed by Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal­ offers an insightful story of a young man (black) only recently graduated from high school. The man hails from the south and is called upon to present a speech to a congregation of the neighborhoods where the whites are predominant. He took part in this speech with other black men- nine in total. After completion of the speech, and in recognition of his prowess, he was recognized for a calfskin brief case and offered a scholarship at a State college-specifically for Negroes. Realizing that he may soon die in the hospital, his grandfather offers him an advice; that he should always be courageous in life and face all obstacles in life positively. The grandfather tells him to keep up the good fight since the “life of Negroes has been a war that we have been traitors in all their lives.” He is advised to “live with his head in the lion’s mouth” (Ellison 56). On their part, his parents advised him to disregard his grandfather’s advice. He is deeply disturbed with this advice and he is in a dilemma of what he can do. In other words, his grandfather views life differently and he does not understand what his grandfather meant. He viewed his grandfather’s words as a curse. When he goes back to a smoker to give his speech in a bid to win approval of the most influential men in the town and possibly to set his precedent into a bright future, a number of the highly respected men town are somewhat tipsy, out of control and belligerent. Then he gets into the ballroom where a naked girl dances. She is confused about the girl (Ellison 25). He wants her and again she does not want her. She only wants to “cuddle her and then “destroy her”. The black boys supposed to participate in the fight felt humiliated with this development. Some of them passed out and yet others just wanted to go home. Only the white men were attentive. The white men finally attacked the girl. The girl is portrayed as having fear and terror analogues to the black men. When the girl escape, the back young men are blindfolded in readiness for the royal battle. The spectators are mostly white people, some from the affluent families; they smoke cigar and indeed some of them shout the blindfolded young men (Ellison 89). It is at this point that the boy remembers his grandfather’s last words to him: “our world is a world of war, where the white men disregard the black men. Meaning The author uses Battle Royal to show how the whites disregard the blacks whom they perceive as illiterate, amateurs and primitive. Perhaps this explains why the grandfather had long resigned to the fact that the white would always be superior over them (Smith et al., 54). The author illuminates the discriminations that have existed between the whites and the blacks or a very long time. The Negroes are taken to be lesser people and should be merely servants of the whites. This can be seen when the black fighters and blindfolded and gravely offended in the battle ring. They are made to feel less respected and mere puppets of the white “masters”. Ralph Ellison wanted to show the social disparities that exist in the American nation. He uses a story that most people can relate to (Ellison 17). The young girl is used to portray how the whites view Negroes. This is especially true due since the fear in the girl’s eyes is compared to the fear and confusion in the black boy’s eyes. When the fight started, the black main actor in the story stumbled in the ring since he was blindfolded. He bled from the nose and mouth and could not tell whether his body was covered in sweat or blood. The humiliation that the black men go through is an indication of the contempt, disrespect, and disregard with which they are treated in the broader American society (Smith et al. 61). Whereas the white bosses smoke cigar and “enjoy” the game, the young men are literally tortured and made to feel desperate and puppets of the white masters. The author chronicles the events in America when discrimination was in its peak in the United States. Perhaps the author hoped to suggest that during this time, the whites felt that the Negroes owed them so much (Parkin 62). In addition, an important lesson that these young men can learn is that each man must fight their own battles, just as the grandfather had advised. Every man must conquer “their own hill” in light of the discrimination that was rife in the United States. All people have their own talents and strengths that they use to elevate their social positions within the society (Smith et al. 93). They just need to what they are and use them to the best of their ability. This is because in the Battle Royal, the young black man and another were the only ones left in the ring, which implies that they hard to give their best and win the championship (Ellison 52). The boys are subjected to further humiliation in the ring. The grandfather’s advice “our world is war”-that of the Negroes-then make meaning to the boy. He learnt that to enhance his own life he has to do what it takes-even if it means fighting as a Negro- just to win the State College scholarship. Style and Technique Among the story’s greatest accomplishments is the successful description of emotional and dreamlike memories of the narrator. Although sometimes they are abstract, concerning their short details-as contrasted to the cinematic and sharp depiction of the true meaning of the “reality” of battle royal experiences-each style the author uses seek to reinforce another. The recollections of the narrator are mostly straightforward declarative sentences in the first person. For instance, the young black man mentions, “I was naïve. I was looking for myself.” Because of this mostly personal medium, the readership learns that the author is both guilty and confused as regards his grandfather’s advice (Walker et al. 75). Conversely, the narrator is portrayed and lacks understanding of the dishonest intentions of the white men. In contrast, though, battle royal accounts have minute brevity, which mainly helps the reader to create a mental note that will help them understand the deeper meaning within the story. For instance, the narrator says, “It was a huge room with high roof.” Many other instances are elaborative as well such that the reader visualizes the narrator’s setting, feelings and his ambitions. The straightforward depictions alternate with similes and metaphors that hint the exotic and bizarre nature of the events of the battle royal. For instance, the boys blindfolded fumbled about “like cautious, blind crabs…” (Walker et al. 86). The nude dancer had yellow hair like a kewpie doll. Her breasts were round. The landscapes in the ring were very effective with visual expressive phrases cut across one image to the next to portray the chaos of the blindfold match. The overtly emblematic style employed during the graduation speech makes fun at of the white man’s attempt to use sophisticated language to convince the black man regarding their “real” intentions concerning the scholarship (Stainback et al. 38). In the entire story, it can be seen that Ellison matched style and content as effective means of passing his message across. Additionally, Ellison also employs jazz improvisation; this is apparent in the rhymes and rhythms of his prose; his free exuberance and strict discipline in delivery (Walker et al. 27). Overall, Battle Royal­ captures the essence of discrimination, the need for survival to win. Works Cited Ellison, Ralph. "Battle royal." The compact Bedford introduction to literature (3rd ed., pp. 286- 295). New York: Bedford/St. Martins.(Original work published 1947) (1994). Parkin, Frank, ed. The social analysis of class structure. Routledge, 2013. Smith, Raymond Arthur, and Cinnamon Lea Lewis. "Latin American and Middle Eastern Discrimination in America: Shared Discrimination Following Changes to Government." (2012). Stainback, Kevin. "Book review: The American Non-Dilemma: Racial Inequality Without Racism." Urban Studies 51.9 (2014): 95-197. Walker, Lawrence J., Jeremy A. Frimer, and William L. Dunlop. "Paradigm assumptions about moral behavior: An empirical battle royal." The social psychology of morality: Exploring the causes of good and evil (2011): 75-92. Read More