Analysis Of Battle Royal

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Recommended: Discuss symbolism in relation to the "battle royal.

Visible and Invisible

I selected Ralph Ellison’s short story “Battle Royal”, as this assessment illuminates the struggles of both race as well as issues oppression within society, in which many must continue to endure. The narrator, a young black teenager has attended an event absent of both law and order as a guest speaker only to be severed up as just another entrée for the prominent group of southern white ringmasters to feast upon. Subsequently, he now realizes “that it was on the occasion of a smoker, and I was told that since I was to be there anyway I might as well take part in the battle royal to be fought by some of my schoolmates as part of the entertainment.” Forced to fight for a right to speak, the young man is in the midst of an alcohol induced and cigar smoke filled circus of violence and sexual misconduct, which is fueled of force intimidation. Many of the symbols used in this story resonances of both race and inequality within a regime lacking integrity, where one is neither protected nor served fairly. Moreover, it is with this view of hopelessness, despair as well as mistrusts that offer a seed of change in society, in which the invisible becomes the visible.
The struggle of oppression and social injustice in recent news media reports of unarmed black males regularly shot in routine traffic stops, …show more content…

It is with this understanding, in which most have learned when to battle as well as when to withdraw and fight another day. "You sure that about 'equality ' was a mistake?" "Oh, yes, Sir," I said. "I was swallowing blood." "Well, you had better speak more slowly so we can understand. We mean to do right by you, but you 've got to know your place at all times. All right, now, go on with your

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