Use Of Imagery In Battle Royal, By Ralph Ellison

Imagery
Imagery plays a significant part in the creation of poems, in the following stories; “Battle Royal”, “How it feels to be colored”, and “Harlem”, the authors use imagery to create an image of the experiences and emotions that their writing intends to portray. For example, in the chapter “Battle royal” of Invisible Man, imagery is seen when Ellison talks about his experiences as an African American. He states, “It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man!” by saying this, it is understood that he is being seen and treated differently, in a world full of

whites, he is invisible. He is constantly being seen as if he were inferior to others, because of the color of his skin. In addition, imagery is present when Zora from “How it feels to be colored me” talks about her life as an African American.

“I remember the very day that I became colored”, Zora means that she was never treated unfairly until she moved to Florida. She was treated equally until she moved, only then did she truly feel different. She also stated, “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” Zora feels inferior when she is around whites. She was always treated fairly until she moved, when she moved people were racist to her even though she didn’t deserve it. She gave no reason for anyone to be racist to her but because of the customs that people followed back then, people discriminated her anyways. Finally, imagery is also seen in Harlem, when the author states “We remember the jobs we never had because we’re colored” and “look out on the world and wonder what we’re going to do in the face of what we remember.” The author of this poem used imagery to help explain what conflicts African Americans faced during this time period. They were not allowed to work in certain jobs or have the experiences that they could have had if they were to have been born with white skin. Imagery is crucial when creating poems, it gives you a sense of what it could have felt like to live during that time period. Imagery helps the reader visualized the memory you are intending

to portray. “Battle Royal” “Harlem”, and “How it feels to be colored me all used imagery to depict the narrator’s emotions and experiences with racism.