Johncodie Hanley

IP2

LITR201

Prof. Eric Wright

In this assignment I will do compare and contrast on two pieces of literature battle royal and the birthmark . first to discuss the settings of each piece of literature affecting the character starting with the birthmark where it sounds like it place in era in which the people of that time era believe magic and spells could cute diesases and abnormalities of humans . even the scientists of back then believed in it too by using nature .Alymer seemed to be the most respected in alchemy in all of europe when during his young youth he discovered elemental powers gathered by nature that astounded soceities in europe. This being told it is lead to believe that the main character is affect by the era that spells an or magic and cure anything which turns on him and killing his wife.

The era of battle royal takes place where slaves were free and they had rights as well but were not treated as such by white people still treating them like they were slaves. This also affects the main character of how he is being treated by the era by still being treated like a slave even thought he is a free man with rights. Battle royal you never learn the name of the main character unlike the birthmark this is because he is a young boy and to make it worse an african american for the time era which was bad unlike the birthmark where the man is well known and middle aged. The words of dying grandfather in battle royal reveal he was trying to show respect instead of being hostile to them instead make them angry agreeing to every word they said.

Now to the birthmark where Alymer is the type of guy who thinks everything can be cured with mother nature or simple potions. The wife of alymer ,georgiana has the birthmark on her and is tiny like a little fairy imprinted it on her with their tiny hands during her birth. Amina Dab is the assistant to Aylmer having the opinion that Alymer’s wife is beautiful just like she is and doesn’t need to improve . A point that both of the stories are the same is they are both told in third person form but if the story battle royal was changed to a first person form it would have a big effect of impressing the readers by making them think they are part of what is going on basically telling it .

The naked blonde in battle royal was used to symbolize what the black boys in the story could never get. The white men used her against the black boys saying that they could never a girl as beautiful as her. At the end there is a dream that symbolizes that he wont be running himself or the white men but whatever he wants in life he’ll run for it. The birthmark to georgiana in “ the birthmark symbolizes beauty to her in herself but for Alymer it was symbolizing for him a cure needed which the alchemy respresents .

both stories are different in theme an or a message where birthmark means you can not make a person perfect we all have flaws and that makes each person amazing in there own way. Battle royal means it just doesn’t take strength physically to a war or fight but you need brains. Onward to discuss fear starting with battle royal that the main character was fearing that he would never say the speech that was written by him. In the birthmark the character Alymer had a fear dealing with his wife’s birthmark fearing that he could never remove it.

This fear related to them fearing something that they couldn’t do what they wanted to. Discrimination did play a part in these stories and after reading both of these where battle royal the main character was still being in treated like he was a slave for white people by being beat up and then he picked coins up off a electric rug that were copper. Alymer in the birthmark was so disgusted by the birthmark that his wife beared that he did not want to see her. But just by physical appearance discrimination these stories relate by being judge on a person’s appearance.

A real true insight to person thoughts or emotions can come from literature other than a person just saying what is on his mind he or she can read. A person reading can have a better focus point drawing a mental image of he or she wants to imagine the story to be . Really literature has endless possibilities and can be anything a person wants to imagine for a place to escape or to learn maybe teach someone . Now to describe on a separate note of a time I experienced discrimination and what I learned since the stories brought the subject up.

There is almost a lot of experiences for me and discrimination mostly while growing up and being different from everyone. I was hyper and didn’t dress as nicely as other kids that I went to school with so I got bullied for these reasons. My classmates grew up in wealthier families and they were taught in a more adult manner and for this I was discriminated for how I looked and how I acted by being called names and being hit. This taught me that people were easy to judge a person even before they really know them this could relate to the metaphor judging a book but it’s cover.

A person will glance at a book’s cover before looking inside and think they wont like it and that sometimes happens in the world of literature. But for me these people didn’t know that my mom struggled to give me everything I had and we went through tough times. she also didn’t have a lot of time to spend with me probably why I wasn’t as mature as them so maybe if they read more into it they would know why I am the way I am.