Battle Royale

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Recommended: Contemporary society racism

In even our modern day people experience different levels of racism and we ought to know how to correctly respond to it. Within the story “Battle Royale”, the young narrator of the story has to face different kinds of racial pressures from many fronts and he has to decide how to respond to it. He also faces self doubt and insecurity about who he is due to these pressures. Questions rise within himself such as, is he simply a freak of nature living in another race’s world or can he become something of his own? So in essence, the story is about showing a perspective on someone who has many racially charged oppositions he must respond to, while also having to decide what he needs. Within this essay I will discuss three major things to show how …show more content…

The plot in this story is about the narrator having to win a boxing match in order to give a graduation speech. The antagonist is not on individual but it is a collective whole of racial opposition the narrator must face to complete his goal. This racism manifests itself in many ways. As the obvious opposition of the rich white town big shots but in more subtle ways as well. One of these is how his grandfather on his deathbed says he is a traitor and spy against his own people. What he meant by this is that he lived a life of submissiveness under the racial oppression that the black community faced. On his deathbed he told the truth about how he felt and how he was ashamed of himself enough to self identify as a traitor. These are effects of living under a racially oppressive environment and deciding it is better to not fight against it but to try and live with it. These words and ideas are thrust into the narrator’s mind and throughout the story his grandfather's words taunt him and conflict with his own interpretation on how to improve and fix his people’s situation. The confliction is that at times humility is needed to gain an advantage but displaying that humility is seen at times as a sign of weakness or inability to stand up and speak against your oppression. These internal conflicts affect the narrator throughout the story and even his choices during the fight. As well as adds more questions as to who he is. In the end he is able to deliver his speech and is gifted a scholarship. He was able to follow through and fight against these doubts and conflicting ideas to pursue what he thought was the best course of action long term for himself and his

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