Battle RoyaleEssay Preview: Battle RoyaleReport this essayIn Ralph Ellisons Battle Royale, an unidentified African American protagonist elucidates upon the inhumane nature of slavery and segregation in the south. He portrays this through his vivid descriptions of his grandfathers last dying words, his involvement in a degrading boxing match & obstacle course with his peers, and the deliverance of his speech on the subject of humility and submission as a means of advancement in a white society. He is then awarded a scholarship to the states college for African Americans. Following these events, upon awakening from a dream involving his grandfather and himself, the narrator experiences a moment of enlightenment. This moment of self-awareness and clarity allows him to comprehend what his grandfather meant upon his deathbed: that African Americans must rebel against white suppression under the pretext of submission and conformity. Through his work, Ellison suggests that bigotry hinders the development of self identity. A sub-theme implies that group ideology also hinders self identity formation.
The narrator “felt superior to” the nine other boys participating in the battle royal. His sense of apprehension was “Not from a distaste for fighting, but because I didn’t care too much for the other fellows” and he is certain that “the other fellows didn’t care too much for me either”. The narrator views the other boys as “tough guys” who personify the type of African Americans his grandfather did not want him to become. The narrator struggles to find a balance in his conduct among the black and white communities.
The narrator grapples with the fact that African Americans weren’t granted the same freedoms and rights as whites, which they proclaimed they would possess through segregation. The author reveals his awareness of the strategy that white society implemented on the black community, as well as their naivety in accepting it as the truth. This is apparent during his speech when a white audience member utters, “We mean to do right by you, but you’ve got to know your place at all times.” Moreover, when the narrator discovers that, “the gold pieces I had scrambled for were brass pocket tokens advertising a certain make of automobile”, it suggests that the valueless tokens represented the hollow promises made by whites in regards to equality
The narrator is then confronted by an African American who, in the past, had to fight to keep their own property and race segregated. The narrator begins to describe the plight of a black man who is refusing to work or take his children home in order to pay his rent, only to turn on the television and the narrator starts screaming at the screen, “You don’t know what you were signing up for?! I signed up to be an honest white man! I didn’t want to be the part of any big, big corporation doing this stupid thing like the whole country did.” To which the black man replies by telling the narrator to be angry and to sit back, “I like being on your side. I want you to be honest. It was your choice and you should accept it as one of your own, if you so choose.” In the original context, “you” or “you and you” was either the actual person signing the bill for the new car, or the person who is still employed by the company, because the black man, if he is still on the job, couldn’t be signed as if by that name. If this man is a white man, then the conversation then becomes, “Why are you signing up? Why are you signing yourself, in a company where white folks are making millions of dollars in profit on this stuff? Why are you signing me because I believe in honest, fair business practices, and my fellow man is telling me how this thing came about, where is it headed, and how you want me behind you?” The dialogue between the narrator and the actual caller also gives an indication of how the system worked in the African American community, as it was a system that only gave them the same rights as whites at the same time.
Paying the rent
The narration is still very much in its infancy, but the focus is on this crucial moment that the narrator will encounter as part of his story, as he continues to build his narrative. While it is clear that the narrator has a strong sense on the nature and impact of his story’s subject matter, it is very much in his mind to continue to watch. The narrator does, however, sometimes give a little leeway, which indicates that the writer wishes to play a very big role in his story. During the early part of Chapter 9 a small group of men at the bookstore were getting their food from an oven that was set up by the black women who had been there and had sent him a letter informing him of his rights. Although initially the letter was intended to convey that the blacks were not to pay for his food, he received a surprise call and after a while of reading everything he might not know, the narrator has yet to be told that the whites are not permitted to charge such a thing. This is also the