“Battle Royal” VS “A Rose for Emily’ “Battle Royal” written by Ralph Ellison is a story about a young black man living in 1940s south. “A Rose for Emily” is one about an elderly white lady in the 1930s South. Although each of these stories are centered in the same time period of the South, they are extremely different. The main difference being; racial issues, the age and color of the main characters, and the accepted social behavior. In “Battle Royal” the entire focus of the story is centered on racial discrepancies between white and black people. The short story is about an African American teenaged boy who is invited to be a guest speaker before a group of a town’s superior white men. The event turns bad once the protagonist …show more content…
Although we can see the traditional stereotypes of the South displayed in the fact Ms. Emily has a servant, but this is not an issue addressed in the story. It is introduced in a casual manner that is almost offhandedly mentioned, because it was a common conception of that time period. Another contrast in these two stories are the obvious personality and lifestyle differences between the main characters. Miss Emily Grierson is an elderly white lady in a southern belle type society. Although she is considered somewhat of an oddball the society still treats her with a level of respect. The white people are very well-mannered and kind to Miss Emily, because that is their expected social behavior.While in “Battle Royal” the white people are brutally, aggressive and hateful to the narrator, a young black man, due to his race. Perhaps there could not be any two stories about the South that are more different than these two. “A Rose for Emily” and “Battle Royal” remarkably show the harsh differences between white on white, and white on black culture in the South. The treatment of the two characters shows this stark difference and emphasizes the racial tension between white and blacks in America’s