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Battle Royal From the moment you read the title Battle Royal, it becomes obvious that a struggle will be present in this story. However, there is not one, but many battles addressed. After reading the story, it becomes clear that these battles being fought are both physical and mental. The most obvious is the conflict between the whites and blacks, but equally important and slightly less obvious is the conflict between the blacks themselves.
Ralph Ellison's short story "Battle Royal" depicts the confusion that fills the mind of a young black man trying to survive in a society where those who are white have all the power and those who are black are their puppets. This young man is torn between two choices on how to prosper in life. One choice is to follow his grandfather's life and not humiliate himself to please white men. The other choice is to be submissive and follow white men's laws and desires. The confusion that afflicts the narrator is made clear in the story.
ellison expresses himself through symbolism and slang to communicate the abundant emotions that govern the narrator... The grandfather is a device used by Ellison to foreshadow heavily the rest of the story. Appearing at the beginning and the end, the grandfather provides a lesson to the young narrator which his parents then tell him to ignore Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up a good fight. I never told you, but your life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome " em with yeses, undermine " em with grins, agree " em to death and destruction, let " em seller you till they vomit or burst wide open Learn it to the young uns These last words that his grand father speaks are the chain-breakers that set the young boy's mind free.
What hit's him the hardest is finding out that his people are in an ongoing fight, a war for freedom and equality. And it is these words that guide him on the right path to the realization of who he is, and how he needs to start thinking and acting. However this path that his grandfather sets him on, is one that presents many mind-tormenting problems. How will his people treat him if he takes on a rebellious attitude?
Also if he refuses to fight for his rights what will his deceased grandfather think of him? These questions torment the boy's mind and soul. In his mind he literally sets himself between two hard places. This boy and all like him live in a white dominated society, and the white men in the society can be seen as the puppeteers. In his society the black people are chained down in a reality in which the white dominating society imposes certain morals or principles by which the black community needs to act. However unlike the people around him, he is able to break the chains that imprison his mind and see how things really work.
He first gets a true sense in what kind of society he lives when he is invited to give his graduation speech at Battle Royal. Battle Royal is a sort of a barbarous boxing mach in which black boys with blindfolds are forced to fight each other for the entertainment of certain town's men. The boys are blinded by a white blindfold - an easy metaphor - which the narrator circumvents in order to approach the battle royal slightly less like an animal. Before he moved the blindfold though, he notes that he had never truly experienced darkness before and it scared him. Our hero is also made to participate in this activity. "I was shocked to see some of the most important men of the town quite tipsy. " he says when he sees who is there, " They were all there-bankers, lawyers, judges, doctors, fire chiefs, teachers, merchants. Even one of the more fashionable pastors. " After the fight, in front of that drunk and perverted crowd of white influential males he is going to present his graduation speech, a speech that address "Social responsibility." Increasing the hypocrisy embedded in the upright citizens gathering, the men not only fail to listen to the speech but yell to the narrator to speak up when his throat is choked by blood.
Nauseated and overwhelmed, he makes the mistake of saying "social equality" instead of "social responsibility" and is almost thrown out of the room. Only by thoroughly swallowing the hypocrisy of the room and the events he has had to participate in can he finally exit the scene without further harm and in the possession of his prize. The story is written in first person singular. The narrator, who is also the main character, is a young, black man who has just graduated from high school with honors. He is invited to read his valedictorian speech at an assembly for the towns important white citizens. However, once he arrives he is told that before he gives his speech, he is to participate in a battle royal along with nine of his peers.
The boys battle for quite some time while the white men watch, laugh, and cheer. Once the battle is over, the ten are led to a rug covered with coins and are told to grab their reward. However the coins are connected to a battery and the boys were shocked each time they grabbed one. Finally, the narrator is called to give his speech. As he stands in front of the men, beaten and bleeding, and begins his speech, he realizes that the men are talking and laughing, paying little or no attention to his words. But nonetheless, he finishes the speech and at the end is applauded and given a briefcase along with a scholarship to attend the state college for Negroes.
The conflict that is present between the whites and blacks is apparent through the words and actions of each character in the story. This is a time after slavery but prior to segregation where feelings between the white people and the black people were mixed. At the beginning of the story, you feel as though you are in a town where the respectable white people are somewhat accepting of the blacks, seeing as how they invite this intelligent, young black man to come and give a speech at a gathering of the towns respectable white people. However, the true nature and intent of those very people becomes clear as soon as the narrator arrives at the gathering. The first example of racism towards blacks is shown when they ten (10) young men are forced to compete in the infamous battle royal. The men are placed in a portable boxing ring, blindfolded and told to run across at the bell and give it to him right in the belly.
If you dont get him, Im going to get you At the sound of the bell, the fighting begins and all the while the white people sit and watch the event unfolding before their eyes. To them, the battle is nothing more than pure entertainment and reinforcement to the belief that the blacks are animals whose self-worth is much less than their own. However, having these ten men violently beat each other is not enough. The black men are led to a rug filled with coins of all dimensions and a few crumpled bills scattered here and there, were the gold pieces. Each of the men kneel around the rug and upon the instructions of the M. C. , was told to GO.
As the men grabbed for the coins, a shock is sent racing through their bodies. They were on an electric rug. The black men kept after the coins despite the pain that was sure to follow. All the while, the white men sat and watched in amusement at the sight of these black men enduring so much pain in order to get their prize. After the white men had received all the entertainment they wanted from this, the black men were informed that the money on the rug was not real and they were escorted to the back and given the real money. Finally, the narrator is called to give his speech.
As he stands in front of the room and begins his speech, he soon realizes that all of the men are still talking and laughing, but keeps going despite this. Although it seems impossible for the white men to have heard anything the narrator said, the narrator receives applause, a new briefcase, and a college scholarship at the end of the speech The white men in the story subject these black men to pain, suffrage, and humiliation for no reason whatsoever, other than to achieve a sense of power. The conflict that exists between the whites and blacks leads to yet another conflict, one between the blacks themselves. While the conflict that exists between the whites and blacks is mostly mental, the one between the blacks themselves is much more physical. It seems as though the white men have more intentions for this gathering than just to get entertainment by humiliating these young, black men. Perhaps their intentions are to keep the blacks fighting amongst themselves so that they will not fight against the white men.
At this time, whites are united while the blacks are pitted against each other. It would be impossible for one black man to overtake a town full of white men. However, if many black men joined together, change does not become so impossible. The white men of the town, who are highly educated, have knowledge of this.
In order to prevent anything from happening, they find ways to keep the black men against one another. The fighting of the men during the battle royal is perhaps the most obvious example of the battle occurring between the black men. Once there are only two men left, the narrator offers to give his opponent all his prize, plus extra, if he will fake a knockout. His opponent refuses, saying Ill break your behind. When the narrator asks if he is doing this just for the entertainment of the white men, he replies, For me, sonofabitch! The reason for this mans hatred toward the narrator is never explained, but it can be inferred that the white men were successful in turning the black men against one another.
Yet another example of this inner-racial turmoil is when the black men are around the rug waiting for the instructions in order to get their prize for the fight. The narrator expresses his thoughts about how he would get the gold and the bills I would use both hands. I would throw my body against the boys nearest to me to block them from the gold. This simple thought can be interpreted to show that each of the black men thought only of himself. The white men are successful in their attempts; by the end of the story the black men are totally independent of each other. The battles that take place in Battle Royal are those which are of great importance and are faced even in this modern day.
It is easy to see that the two conflicts are closely related and, in fact, one is caused, or escalated, by the other. If there was no conflict between the white men and the black men, there would have been no need for the battle royal or the entire humiliating experience that occurs. In turn, the black men would not have been forced to engage in activities which bring hostility towards one another, but perhaps would take part in activities to bring them together. Bibliography Butler, Robert. "Down from Slavery: Invisible Man's Descent into the City and the Discovery of Self. " American Studies 29. 2 (Fall 1988): 57 - 67. (Bound) German, Norman. "Imagery in the 'Battle Royal' Chapter of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. " CLA Journal 31. 4 (June 1988): 394 - 99. (Bound) Baumbach, Jonathan. "Nightmare of a Native Son: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. " Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction 6. 1 (1963): 48 - 65. (Bound) Randall, John H. , III. "Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man. " Revue des Langues Vivantes 31 (1965): 24 - 45.
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