Battle Royal Symbolism

Symbolism provides an indirect proposal to convey one’s feelings and state of mind. It offers an opportunity for the writer to deepen the reader’s emotional outlook of the characters presented in the story. Symbolism allows one to under stand the character in a deeper manner and unfold a hidden meaning of who the character is and what the conflict is in the story. From the characters, we can learn through symbolism more about them. In “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison, the young African American views himself as being praised and chanted by the white folks for a speech that he has delivered, but in reality he is being mocked. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, a family vacation turned into a murder scene where the grandmother

starts proclaiming her faith. In both of these short stories, the authors used symbolism to help the reader further understand the personalities of the protagonists.
In Ellison’s famous “Battle Royal”, the use of symbols helps the protagonist find him self.

During the very start of the story, the protagonist stated, “All my life I had been looking for something and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too…I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer”. During this scene, the character was blind to his surroundings, making him feel feeble and defenseless. The blindness that he faced during that scene symbolized his vulnerability. Along with the ten other boys and himself, they were all denied one of there most valuable senses when they were blindfolded, sight. When the boys began striking each other and grabbing at the air, they were allowing themselves to be the subject of an unknown force. The blood that was spilt during the match symbolizes the Protagonists guilt. As the protagonist went to go throw his punches, “In [his] mind each word was as bright as flame.” Because he was blindfolded, there was no pride or no dignity that he had. With each punch, he was not able to tell if he was bleeding everywhere or if it was his sweat. He was unsure if he was feeling guilty or if he was stricken with embarrassment and shame. Each punch symbolized the quilt that was held within and before he lost consciousness, the guilt finally overtook him. It was now splattered around him and choking him of all the dignity that he had left in

him.
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the grandmother’s hat allows the reader to see that she is in fact a lady, but also symbolizes her misguided moral code. While packing for the family vacation, the grandmother always wanted to be lady-like. After the car accident, rather than worrying about her family, the only thing that mattered was her reputation as a lady. This is a ludicrous concern that reveals her selfishness and weak moral conviction. After the involvement in the car crash, the grandmother’s hat, similar to her moral convictions, falls apart. When facing the Misfit, the brim of the hat falls off and her image as a lady soon dissolves. The grandmother’s hat also serves the purpose of showing that she was a manipulator. At one point in the story, Bailey, the son, did not want the cat to come, and the grandmother decided to sneak it into her basket and secretly bring it. The grandmother is selfish and satisfies her selfishness by manipulating others. When the Misfit surrounded her she always kept her lady like posture and demeanor stating, “You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?" (86) It was evident that throughout the novel, the grandmother’s hat played a huge part in appearance of looking nice and respectful. It was stated that, “Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her necklace she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” This shows that her appearance and her looks were most important to her.
It was evident from the very start of both stories, that both authors used symbolism to exemplify stronger personalities into their stories. From symbolism, we can we can gain a better insight into the life of the protagonist in “Battle Royal” and “A Good Man is Hard To Find”. From the grandmother in the “A Good Man is Hard to Find, we can see that her manipulating ways made her insincere and unconcerned about the rest of her family. Also, when she tries to manipulate the Misfit, she is not as clever as she thinks she is. The serial killer does not care about the woman’s needs. At the end of the story, she is a petty, superficial, and selfish character. O'Connor paid more attention to bringing out the faults in a character than any author I have previously read before. As for the protagonist in “Battle Royal”, he was an invisible character. The symbols in his story made him symbolic to the African American people in his society. His struggles as a black male are portrayed in the blood at the Battle Royal and his inability to see. Just as the narrator had to humiliate himself at the Royal, he had to also comply with his white leaders to get ahead in society. In other words, His sense of alienation is their sense of alienation. Two small descriptive symbols by each author, including the grandmother’s hat and the blindfold at the rumble, gave us a more of a descriptive and in depth view of emotion and symbolism.