...Name Course Instructor Institution Date Literary discourse: The importance of Battle Royal Ralph Ellison’s literary piece exemplifies the extreme racial prejudices of the mid twentieth century that Afro-Americans suffered under white supremacy dominance. Battle royal tackles issues of social inequalities in terms of economic empowerment, education, self-identity and racial superiority or lack thereof. Through the main protagonist in the story, the writer manages to bring to the fore the brutal acts of racial segregation and the horrors of a people struggle for self-recognition and identity. The agonizing plight of the young black man, point to the psychological torment that the black race had to endure as he tries to impress the white folks, despite his grandfather’s counsel that their lives was a perpetual war that he has to fight. The story depicts a nameless protagonist trying to define his place among his people and acceptance from the white people. The story if full of symbolism through use of imagery and satire allowing the reader appreciate the magnitude of a class-based society. The cultural differences are played out in the story depicting the superiority of the white people as opposed to the black race. For instance, the young man is invited to give a speech to an all-white audience, but first he is forced into a ‘battle royal’ with his classmates who all happen to be black. The fight is not for accolades for the winner but purely for...
Words: 1463 - Pages: 6
...Battle Royal The story opens with the narrator, who reads about his younger brother named Sonny who has been caught in a heroin bust. The narrator then goes about his day; he is a teacher at a school in Harlem. However, he cannot get his mind off Sonny. He thinks about all the boys in his class, who don’t have bright futures and are most likely doing drugs, just like Sonny. After school, he meets a friend of Sonny’s, who tells him that they will lock him up and make him detox, but eventually he will be let out and be all alone. Originally, the narrator doesn’t write to Sonny. After his daughter Gracie died of polio, he decided to write Sonny a letter. Then Sonny wrote back, so they got in contact again. At this point, we learn how Sonny is related to the narrator—they are brothers. They keep in contact, and after Sonny gets out of jail, he goes to live with the narrator and his family. They eat a family dinner, which then turns into a flashback about their parents. The narrator describes his father, a drunken man, who died when Sonny was fifteen. Sonny and his father had the same privacy; however they did not get along. Sonny was withdrawn and quiet; while their father pretended to be big, tough, and loud-talking. The narrator then thinks back to the last time he saw his mother alive, just before he went off to war (most likely fought in World War II). She told him the story of how his uncle died (was run over by some drunken white kids), how his father was never the same...
Words: 964 - Pages: 4
...Life as an ethnic minority is always hard in most country in the world. Even in the multicultural society in the United States, minorities still faces discrimination but life for minorities we much harder before 50 years ago. African-Americans have been oppressed for so long that many stopped fighting for their rights and like the main character’s grandfather regrets not fighting for his rights against the Whites. As he graduated for High School at the top if his class, he gave a good speech that was perhaps inspirational on African-Americans. The town leading white citizens has a gathering and he was invited to give his speech. He felt honored but felt rather unusual for honor guess but he was lead to a room via service elevator and change his clothes for boxing shorts along with other African-Americans. First signs that he was not special or respected for his accomplishment. They stands in the Boxing rings as the naked white lady (Stripper) dance around them very close that they can see the pore of the skin. It was a lesson that they can never have the white women. They also have to fight each other to win the special price from the white. Another lesson that if Black want to succeed they need to fight for what they want between the blacks after the white people give they what to fight for. Third lesson is that they need to get what and how the white people want to give them. By putting the electrified carpets with coins attached. Finally the main character was...
Words: 365 - Pages: 2
...The use of symbolism is one of the most prevalent ways Ellison helps the reader better understand his story. Ellison uses symbolism to express the narrator’s struggle trying to work his way through the social divide in “Battle Royal”. Symbolism such as the use of color, the metaphoric messages of white supremacy, and the grandfather’s vague words of advice help Ellison tell this short story. The use of color in this story is one of the most beautiful and interesting ways Ellison provides context and understanding for the intense scenes. When the narrator says, “All ten of us climbed under the ropes and allowed ourselves to be blindfolded with broad bands of white cloth.” (229) it depicts the lack of choice the black men had. And although he states that they “allowed” the white men to blindfold them, the reader understands that there really was no other option. White men literally blinded the black men by not allowing them to make eye contact with white women. And figuratively speaking, the prejudice whites have against blacks...
Words: 697 - Pages: 3
...The “Royal Battle” expresses the nauseating facts of discrimination to African American’s around the time of the Civil War in America during the late 1800’s. Ellison writes extensively about the manipulation African American men and women endured throughout history in his chronicle. However, the discrimination did not stop at name calling but continued to placing the people of color into fighting rings purely for the entertainment of the white men present at the events. Even so, placing the gentlemen on the floor to fight for money they desperately needed. A complete mockery of the young men pursuing a difference for their heritage after being promised equality by governing bureaucrats. In the beginning, the unnamed protagonist amplifies...
Words: 1005 - Pages: 5
...The battle royal is the basically a symbol for struggle, and how regardless how learned an African American is, he isn’t the same in the eyes of the white spectators. They would blindfold the fighters, and treat them as entrainment while they flail about the ring, trying to hit each other. As for the naked blond, she was just there to tease the boys, and show them temptations. They can see, but are forbidden to touch the beautiful blond woman, so again it symbolizes something they are lusting for but are unable to obtain. As for the month, it was there to symbolize wealth and even if the African Americans were able gain some of the white man’s wealth. They wouldn’t still be equals, because they will always be beneath them and just floundering...
Words: 304 - Pages: 2
...that really does reveal truth? In the stories “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison and “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne I came to a staggering feeling of empathy when it comes to discrimination. In “Battle Royal” you are taken back to some time in the 1920s or 1930s after the Civil war when slaves were finally free and believed they were equal. In the south and in this story we know that wasn't quite the case. Although he tells the story, you never learn the narrator's name. You can tell he's struggling to find his own identity and is invisible due to his race. There is a constant reoccurring theme of racism and a total insecurity of individual identity. The narrators grandfather was a slave that was freed. On his deathbed he counsels the narrators father to undermine the whites with “yeses and grins” and “agree 'em to death and destruction” He felt like a traitor to his race and himself by following that advice, but it is what kept him alive. This advice creates a strong fear for the narrator to, in one instance, fight for his life. In other instances the poor boy is stripped of his pride due to his fear of the white men. It's actually quite heart-wrenching to feel the narrator's inequalities. In the beginning of his fight, there's a blonde dancer who, it would seem, is also struggling for her equality as a woman. I honestly almost didn't recognize it because I was so nervous for what was coming, the actual battle. This really gave me the feeling Ellison was referencing...
Words: 859 - Pages: 4
...Dr. Keaton Am. Lit. 214 12-8-09 Discrimination and Ignorance in the “Battle Royal” The government made it hard for African Americans to lead normal lives in the south, after slavery was abolished until the mid nineteen sixties. This was because there was extreme discrimination and racism towards African Americans by the whites, and the government did not do anything to stop this. There were many discriminatory laws in place called the Jim Crow Laws, which basically made it legal for whites to treat blacks with cruelty. In the short story “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison, there are many examples of the cruelties done to blacks by whites. Throughout the story, the white men hurt the protagonist and the other black boys emotionally, psychologically, and physically, and yet the protagonist still feels that blacks should follow the cruel and unjust laws for the good of society. In the beginning of the novel, the white men use a naked stripper to gain control of the protagonist and his group and hurt them psychologically and emotionally. As the African American literature critic Lee states, “ the stripper is a synthetic metaphor of white Mother America, Pocahontas, Martha Washington, the Scarlet Woman—white-fleshed, an object for rape and adoration, a pleasure-object--and yet for this “Nigger” a locus classicus of threat, a taboo, a castration” (Lee 23). This woman is a metaphor for how the government is also controlling the black people’s lives. The stripper is meant as pleasure...
Words: 1632 - Pages: 7
...word” by Gloria Naylor and “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison the author shares their personal experiences to narrate racism faced by African Americans at that time. In the meaning of a word the Gloria narrates the importance of evaluating the word which are used and heard. She was humiliated and called a “nigger” by a young white boy. This experience invoked the feelings in her that she is living in a society which is based on racial discrimination against black people. In addition, she presented arguments of evaluating words which usually have different meanings and are used in different contexts. On the other hand, in Battle Ralph Ellison has narrated his personal experience of delivering a speech in a luxurious environment of white people gathering. He was humiliated during his speech and didn’t receive any respect from the audience. These racial issues experienced by the narrators of the stories clearly undermine the curse of racism. Considering this aspect, the presented paper will cover comparative analysis of the racial issues narrated in these stories. In the essay Nigger: the meaning of a word Gloria Naylor thoroughly discusses the...
Words: 1088 - Pages: 5
...“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...
Words: 437 - Pages: 2
...Six feet below; yet, their influence would not go. The narrator's in "Daddy" and "Battle Royal" are both haunted by the lasting affects their deceased family members had on them. Ellison writes, "It was as though he had not died at all, his words caused so much anxiety" (Ellison 215). Ellison's quote captures the internal disorder that both narrator's experience; the lingering memories governing their emotions, actions, and thoughts - constantly dictating their lives. Although the narrator's in each story differ in ethnicity, culture, and gender; they share commonalities, such as being profoundly influenced by the death of a loved one during their adolescence. The indelible final impressions could not escape their memory. In "Daddy," Sylvia...
Words: 628 - Pages: 3
...The American Color Caste, A Question of Social Equality in Ralph Ellison's “Battle Royal” A caste is the system of dividing society into hereditary classes, such as the one highlighted in Ralph Ellison's short story “Battle Royal”. The protagonist demonstrates the caste system, as he sees it, between the African American race and that of the Caucasians in the story, specifically that of the young protagonist and the older, Caucasian men of power from his hometown. In his story we see the protagonist, a boy of color, subjected to injustices that seem cruel and otherworldly when placed along what is socially acceptable in our societal expectations today. However, in reading Gunnar Myrdal's “Social Equality”, W.E.B. Dubois' “Of Mr. Booker T....
Words: 590 - Pages: 3
...Personal Responsibility Personal responsibility is you the individual taking responsibility for your own actions. Whether it is at work, school or everyday life you are responsible for the outcome of the decisions you make. Personal responsibility is a skill needed to be successful in college or in any career. As a United States Soldier it is important to take responsibility for your own actions. It is required that each soldier of lesser rank to be obedient to orders. One of the many orders given is be on time to all formations. It is the Commanders responsibility to ensure that all soldiers are accounted for during each Battle Assembly. It is the soldier’s responsibility to be 15 minutes prior to any given time. In the military time could be crucial, almost any task has a time line to be accomplished and it is important to accomplish that task in a timely manner so that mission requirements are up to par. Practicing personal responsibility as a soldier can be challenging and intimidating. The demands of the military and other personal obligations can put tremendous amount of pressure on a soldier. The relationship between personal responsibility and being a soldier relate to one another. Developing the initiative, enthusiasm, motivation and, a positive maturity level are just some of the many traits to becoming successful in the military. Being a last minute person is not in the dictionary of a good quality soldier. Not being present at any formation can result in a miss...
Words: 562 - Pages: 3
...September 9, 2012 A New Kind of Warfare Cybersecurity efforts in the United States have largely centered on defending computer networks against attacks by hackers, criminals and foreign governments, mainly China. Increasingly, however, the focus is on developing offensive capabilities, on figuring out how and when the United States might unleash its own malware to disrupt an adversary’s networks. That is potentially dangerous territory. Such malware is believed to have little deterrent value against criminals who use computers to steal money from banks or spies who pilfer industrial secrets. But faced with rising intrusions against computers that run America’s military systems and its essential infrastructure — its power grid, for instance, and its telecommunications networks — the military here (and elsewhere) sees disruptive software as an essential new tool of war. According to a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the 15 countries with the biggest military budgets are all investing in offensive cyber capabilities. The latest step occurred last month when the United States sent out bids for technologies “to destroy, deny, degrade, disrupt, corrupt or usurp” an adversary’s attempt to use cyberspace for advantage. The Air Force asked for proposals to plan for and manage cyberwarfare, including the ability to launch superfast computer attacks and withstand retaliation. The United States, China, Russia, Britain and Israel began developing basic cyberattack...
Words: 492 - Pages: 2
...CHAPTER – 7 INFORMATON OPERATION “There is a war out there, old friend- a World War. And it’s not about whose got the most bullets; it’s about who controls the information.” Cosmo, in the 1992 Film “Sneakers” 0701. Introduction The instruments of national power (diplomatic, informational, military, and economic) provide leaders with the means and ways of dealing with crises around the world. Employing these means in the information environment requires the ability to securely transmit, receive, store, and process information in the real time. The nation’s state and non-state adversaries are equally aware of the significance of new technology, and will use information-related capabilities (IRCs) to gain advantages in the information environment, just as they would use more traditional military technologies to gain advantages in other operational environments. As the strategic environment continues to change, so does Information Operations (IO). Based on these changes, the present world now characterizes IO as the integrated employment, during military operations, of IRCs in concert with other lines of operation to influence, disrupt, corrupt, or take over the decision making of adversaries and potential adversaries while protecting our own. 0702. Background Information Operations are an evolving construct with roots back to olden times, thus it is both an old and a new concept. The late 1970 world saw the materialization of Information Warfare (IW) and Command and...
Words: 2128 - Pages: 9
