Personal Experiences In Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal

     If I had to pick one out of the many stories that we have read and say

“Battle Royal” provides a realistic portrait of the difficulty of being a black person in a

The authors have created these characters in the short stories to undergo changes, which help make it through tough events. The character development in the stories is important because it shows the changes and events that help shape and create the main characters of the story. Both authors shape the characters through contrasting events, making the characters change from a static to a dynamic character by the end of the story. The authors tie in both the past with the present to create a twist on the future of the main characters. “Soldier's Home,” by Ernest Hemingway, and “Battle Royal,” by Ralph Ellison, are both short- fictional stories sharing a common literary characteristic of character development, influenced by the other

Race relations in America is a very sensitive subject, and Battle Royal by Ralph Ellison captures several of the societal conflicts it presents. The central idea of focus is about the generational conflict about race relations between blacks and blacks, as well as blacks and whites. The main character provides reasoning for the internal struggle in his life, as he reflects on how the final words of his dyeing grandfather and the Battle Royal affected him`.

In one way it is symbolic of the African Americans’ struggle for equality throughout our nation’s history. The various hardships that the narrator must endure, in his quest to deliver his speech, are representative of the many hardships that the blacks went through in their fight for equality.

Ellison's 'King of the Bingo Game' encompasses a variety of different implications that transform an otherwise sad short story into a political statement regarding racial injustice towards African Americans. Ellison's use of colors, slang phrases, names, irony, and his almost constant use of metaphor change otherwise meaningless sentences into poignant testimonial of disparity. This exceptional use of language, in conjunction to the hardships African American's faced at the time of the stories conception allow it to paint a picture of inequality and prejudice that insight insanity into the main character.

Ralph Ellison made it clear that Invisible Man was not based on his own experiences. In an interview, he stated, “Let me say right now that my book is not an autobiographical work.” However, it is clear that his culture and the time period of his upbringing affected his writing. This is particularly seen in his descriptions of the treatment of blacks, the African American society, and the revelation of the narrator.

Most would agree somebody who kills people and has sex with their dead bodies and eats them is nuts. Could crimes such as these be caused by someone's childhood? However, those who were killed and those who survived could testify as to what demons lurked inside this killer. Jeffrey Dahmer was one of the world’s most infamous serial killers of all times, with hundreds of serial killers both past and present, Jeffrey Dahmer stands out from the rest from his early years.

Authors use different genres of writing to portray their literary messages amongst these genres there are poems and short stories. Battle Royal written by Ralph Ellison is a short story about an African American boy who receives some cryptic advice from his grandfather that ultimately causes him to discover that he must stand up for African Americans and not be a coward like his grandfather was. The poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Dunbar is about dishonesty and deception, lying about ones feelings and in a sense hiding ones true emotions with a “mask.” Both of these forms of writing convey an overall message that people do not always speak the truth because they are afraid to do so. They hide behind a façade pretending to be something they are not, thinking they are doing what is best but in reality are only hurting themselves. The poem, “We Wear the Mask” does an overall better job at conveying this message than the short story, Battle Royal. “We Wear the Mask” communicates this message in a much clearer and concise manner. While in Battle Royal, the reader would have to do some research on the time period in order to fully understand the grandfather’s true meaning behind his words. Poetry uses symbolism, tone, and punctuation to provide deeper knowledge behind the author’s words and can give the reader a better understanding of the authors message in a few short stanza’s than a story could in a few pages.

The story I have chosen to write my literary analysis on is Battle Royale", a short story by Ralph Ellison, written in 1952. This short story is the opening of a larger novel written by Ellison it is a story about a young black man, who has recently graduated high school. During the course of this story the boy’s grandfather dies and leaves the young man with some last words that he did not initially understand but close to the end of the story the words meaning become clearer to him. He lives in the south and is invited to give a speech at a gathering of the towns leading white citizens. Then the young man is made to take place in a battle royale with nine other young black men. Where they are treated very poorly and forced to endure terrible hardships. After taking part in the battle the young man gives a speech in front of a predominantly white crowd where he slips and says something that disturbs the crowd, the young man quickly corrects himself and then is praised by the people as a good black young man. The argument that I will be trying to address here is did the young man make the correct decision by accepting the white peoples praise and not speaking out against the injustice he had just been forced to endure. The reaction of the main character in this story depicts how not speaking up against injustice or racism is sometimes the best course of action.

According to August Wilson’s story, Fences, from the first scene of the play to the end, the center of attention is mainly on Troy, a character who continues to experience racial intolerance. The racist culture in which he dwells in has positioned him as nothing other than a servant to the Whites as a garbage collector in the center of the city Pittsburg. At the same chronological point in time, African American writers of the present time, such as Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, symbolically expressed the infuriating effects of American societal setting on the African- American consciousness. The Du Bois’ idea of double awareness posited a class of educational duality which all black Americans had to battle with. (Majeed 235). He distinct it as a duplicated consciousness burdened with the dread of existing in the American world which yield him no true self-consciousness, but only let him see himself in the course of the revelation of the universe. The notion of double awareness was developed into the distinction between outer life and inner life as a way of characterizing Du Bois’ views. The interior life of the black American was for domestic use and may become better through nurturing. On a side note, art was a vital aspect of nurturing. Art should be used as a mechanism to fight back against racism, which is part of the outer life of the black people. It could also be a well thought-out shield in political battle.

Director and actor Spike Lee presents his "truth" about race relations in his movie Do the Right Thing. The film exhibits the spectacle of black discrimination and racial altercations. Through serious, angry, and loud sounds, Lee stays true to the ethnicity of his characters, all of which reflect their own individualism. Lee uses insulting diction and intense scenes to show how severe racism can lead to violence.

In the 1940‘s racial segregation gripped southern American life. The notion of separating blacks from whites created immense tension. Separate water fountains, bathrooms, restaurants, etc. were variables that helped keep races apart. “Jim Crow” laws in the south were intended to prevent blacks from voting. These laws, combined with the segregated educational system, instilled the sense that blacks were “separate” but not equal (174). Many people of color weren‘t able to survive through this time period because of the actions of whites. One individual who overcame the relentless struggles was Ralph Ellison. Ellison, a famous author, depicted racial segregation in the 1940’s through a fictional short story entitled “Battle Royal.” Battle

Since the beginning of our lives, humans are born with a specific set of chromosomes that contain the genetic information that will code for our personality, appearance and our biological functioning (Science Learning Hub, 2011). Inside those chromosomes, humans can develop a wide range of genetically-based diseases, such as sickle cell anemia, diabetes and some forms of cancers, due to mutations of the DNA structure (National Human Genome Research Institute, 2015). A new technique created by researchers called Restriction Nuclease Mediated Recombination, has the ability to successfully replace DNA sequences in order to eliminate genetic-based diseases. Initially, this technology appears to one of the greatest scientific accomplishments, however

If any country is the emblem of true freedom, then America is the stereotypical answer for a number of people. To which, during the reconstruction era, a division of people who were both legally free and had the same opportunities, but only differed in skin color, upheld racial segregation like that in Invisible Man. The novel’s protagonist utilizes a symbolic Battle Royale to represent the fight for equality, which coupled with an erotic dance, leaves minorities “stripped” of their dignity; thus representing how the American social view of the era is distorted.