"Battle Royal" "Battle Royal," by Ralph Ellison was a very difficult piece of literature for me to understand. As a little background information, Ellison was very much into music (228). He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on March 1, 1914 (221). Different themes are presented throughout this short story, which reflect different views that Ellison had at the time that he wrote this essay. One boy is invited to speak at local men’s club where he will deliver his graduation speech. As I go on, I will discuss the nature of the short story and how it affected me. The narrator’s view of this entire situation at the men’s club is kind of humiliating which will later set the stage for events that will happen in his future. Black people are viewed different in this time period and the narrator does not understand near the end of the story. The narrator looks up to his grandfather. He told the narrator’s father to keep up the fight. The father then tells the narrator what the grandfather told him. This was just being passed down through the different generations. This to me shows the loving relationship that the grandson and the grandfather share. Near the end of the story however, his grandfather’s presence scares him to death. The grandfather’s advice was a little too much for the narrator to handle. "Live with your head in the lion’s mouth…overcome them with yeses…let ‘em swoller you till they vomit." This scares the boy. These last words that his grandfather tells him makes him feel like that there is a curse hovering over him. The family being black had a harder time growing up than the more wealthy white folks did. He wrote a graduation speech that totally went against his grandfather’s words that he gave the narrator. The town’s "leading white people" loved the speech and asked him to deliver it at a local hotel in the ballroom. This starts a "revolution" in the narrator’s life. The people at the hotel make the narrator feel very uncomfortable. This group of "town’s officials" turned out to be the local men’s club. They were smoking and drinking, paying no attention to what the guests have to say. The leaders of the club are more interested in the entertainment. At that time, they could have cared less what the narrator had to say. They had a woman ... ... middle of paper ... ... The crowd was still laughing at him and all the others that had been brutally beaten. He gave his well-written speech with some quivering in his voice. The crowd actually began to listen to him while he delivered his speech. They started to listen when he said responsible. After the speech was over, the man over the "men’s club" came up and praised him. To me, this was very ironic because why would they do that to someone and then praise him for a job well done? I am thinking that maybe they did this just to test his patience and pride. It paid off because one of the white men gave him a brief case with a document inside of it. The document was a scholarship to the State College for Negroes. The narrator was ecstatic. He then had a dream that night. He dreamed about what his grandfather had said earlier. He awoke with laughing in his ear. He had no idea what it meant at that time. This incident with the beating made him realize that he can stand up for himself and other people in turn making him a better person for society. He felt some better because he proved them wrong. Black men in that time period can make a difference and the narrator was out to prove it.
...ir eyes off of the naked women dancing. The outbursts towards the black men is farther evidence that during that time, blacks had little to no say and had not felt equal to their white counterparts. Perhaps the most conspicuous symbol of all is the battle itself. The white men pitted a group of black men against each other; the black men were in a no win situation. Instead of expressing their displeasure with the white men, the black men were forced to take their anger out on each other. The narrator also seems to seek approval by the white men; remembering his speech as he fights the other men. According to the protagonist: Should I try to win against the voice out there? Would not this go against my speech, and was not this a moment for humility, for nonresistance?” ( ). He’s worried about defying the white men; letting them down by not performing well enough.
Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” is an eye opening story. Ellison introduces us to a black nameless citizen. All the nameless citizen wants is to be acknowledged and to please the white men, which is strange given the white common men are forcing him to brutally fight his black peers. Ellison’s story is focusing on the ignorance of African Americans due to the constant deception of the white supremacist. (Ellison)
Many papers seem to show good fortune for the narrator, but only provide false dreams. The narrator’s prize of a brief case containing his scholarship first illustrates this falsehood: “take this prize and keep it well. Consider it a badge of office. Prize it. Keep developing as you are and some day it will be filled with important papers that will help shape the destiny of your people” (32). The narrator is filled with joy from receiving his scholarship and brief case but subconsciously knows of the shallowness of the superintendent’s heart felt speech. Ellison shows this subconscious knowledge through the narrator’s dream of receiving a letter of deep and truthful meaning: “And I did and in it I found an engraved document containing a short message in letters of gold…” “To Whom It May Concern,” I intoned. “Keep This Nigger-Boy Running” (33). Even though it is just a dream, the white people actually do want to keep the narrator and his race running after false dreams.
The feelings of allowing felons to vote is chilling; those who have been to prison have committed crimes and are out to get their rights back. But it is clear that felons should be “disenfranchised because they have broken the laws,” says Edward Feser, a philosophy professor and writer. Yet people are still questioning whether it is moral to keep felons from getting the rights to vote. Disenfranchising felons is unintentional in racial issues, and is used to punish felons to teach them that once they've broken the laws, they have lost their voting rights as well, and it would also keep felons from violating fellow citizens' voting rights.
African Americans were among the worst treated races in the US; however, this did not stop them from fighting for the rights that so many had died for. It seemed as if black people would never be treated respectfully, but just like in comic books, there is always a hero that will fight for his people. This hero soon came to the scene and he was fierce enough to change the lives of many people. Most importantly, he broke the color barrier and created a path that would allow others to follow. However, something that was inevitable was the threats and racial remarks they had to face.
In the United States 2.2 million citizens are incarcerated on felony charges. Laws in America prohibit felons from voting. As a result, on Election Day 5.3 million citizens of America are disenfranchised because of crimes they once committed. Though they once broke the law, they have served their time and have been punished adequately in accordance with the American Justice System. Felons should regain full voting rights after their stint in prison.
They give him what he believes to be victories-the opportunity for a speech, the chance to prove his worth in the battle royal, the college scholarship-all of it, to keep him running. He finally realizes it. By studying this fascinating character which , I think, represents all blacks of that time I discovered that the prejudice is one problem that we as a society have to become more aware of. We have to get past the cover, and open up the book and read it before we judge. If people would do this it
In the book Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates speaks on racial encounters developing while growing up and gives a message to his son about the unfair racial ways he had to overcome in his life. Through Coates racist and unfair lifestyle, he still made it to be a successful black man and wants his son to do the same. He writes this book to set up and prepare his child for his future in a country that judges by skin color. Coates is stuck to using the allegory of a disaster in the book while trying to explain the miserable results from our history of white supremacy. In parts of the story, he gives credit to the viewpoint of white
The United States is one of the only few democratic countries that disenfranchises convicted felons. An estimated 5.85 million people charged with a felony are banned from voting. Moreover, felon disenfranchisement laws are a form of racial discrimination because a large percentage of felons are Hispanic, Latino or African American that have been incarcerated as a result of racial profiling. Denying felons from voting is unconstitutional since the right to vote and cast a ballot is supposed to be the cornerstone of democracy. Felons who have completed their sentence should be restored their right to vote as they should be able to participate in elections just like every other citizen. Despite being charged with a felony, felons are also American
The native Africans' heritage and way of life were forever altered by the white slave drivers who took them into captivity in the 18th century. Along with their freedom, slaves were also robbed of their culture and consequently their identities. They became property instead of people, leaving them at the hands of merciless slave owners. Their quest to reclaim their stolen identities was a long and difficult struggle, especially in the years following the Civil War and the subsequent release of their people from bondage. In Ralph Ellison's 1948 short story "Battle Royal," he uses the point of view of a young black man living in the south to convey the theme of racial identity crisis that faced African Americans in the United States during the early to mid 20th century.
whims of state legislatures. Laws that prohibit felons from voting are a punishment above and
... to whom the light of knowledge does not mean anything. So, the white society directed a man into a slave. However the reader of this Narrative knows that the slaveholders’ attempt to convert a man into a slave was unsuccessful in Douglass’ case. His kind hearted mistress sparked a fire within Douglass when she taught him to read. That fire of manhood eventually raised within his heart and his manpower erased his slave like attitudes, and made a slave into a powerful man. Next he was ready to escape from South which was further a big turning point in his life. His desire for freedom was as strong as his desire to read. He said, “This was what I wanted” (92). Douglass tried to save others from abusing by writing “several protections”(94). At the end of the book, Douglass’ huge change of position made him a powerful speaker, teacher, and saver from a passive slave.
He portrays the racist tendency of people to assume black men are potentially violent and dangerous. He describes about a white woman’s reaction when she and him were walking on same street but on the opposite sides during the night. He says that women seemed to be worried, she felt uneasy and she thought that he was ‘menacingly close’. He even shares his experience on how he was taken as a burglar, mistaken as a killer and forced out of a jewelers store while doing assignment for a local paper. The reason behind being kicked out of the jeweler store and women running away was because he was a black man. During that period black men were stereotyped as rapist, murderer, and gang members. These names upon a person’s personality can hinder ones feelings and can also affect ones confidence level. Thus stereotyping can cause a person to miss opportunities and the person might face difficulties in building relationships with specific types of people. (Brent
...he right to vote. I made a ten question survey that asked questions about letting convicted felons have the right to vote in major elections throughout America. Thirteen out of thirty high school students said that convicted felons should have the right to vote because they are American citizens. The other seventeen people I surveyed said that they should not have the right to vote because they had their chance to perform correctly in society and failed miserably. As you can now see, I have given you many reasons to see that convicted felons should not have the right to vote. They cannot be trusted with such a responsibility as voting for this country’s next leader.
The first major symbol in this story is the battle royal itself. The battle royal symbolizes the struggle for equality in the black community. The fight shows how the black Americans try to overcome the brutal treatment and the fear that comes from the violence of segregation and slavery. When the narrator is in the elevator with the other fighters, he thinks that he has the option in participating in the battle, but in reality he has no choice. This event introduced another theme of a reward that cannot be attained. This battle is also a representation of how the white men feel dominant and feel pleasure in keeping the black men fearful of them. In addition to the white men’s sense of dominance over the black men, this event is also pointed towards black society when the narrat...