Hopelessness And Blindness In Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal

In the first chapter of Ralph Ellison’s short story, ‘Battle Royal’ we are introduced to the narrator who takes place in this boxing match amongst other black men. Ellison sets us in a scene where we are given the true reality of what life as a black man was like in the years of the 1940’s. The system of the Jim Crow laws was effective by state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the southern United States. All areas of living according to the Jim Crow laws were ‘separate but equal.’ Ellison’s battle royal allows for us to see first hand what the narrator experienced as a black man being embarrassed and harassed by these white men. Ellison reveals to his audience one of the most focused on scenes in this chapter which takes place

Booker T Washington writes the book “Up From Slavery”; in this book, he writes about being born a slave and growing up battling to get his education after the Civil War. He talks about the battle and speeches he had given to try to express the necessity of the Negros to be equal.“I tried to emphasize the fact that while the Negro should not be deprived by unfair means of the franchise…and that no race without these elements could permanently succeed.”

Booker T. Washington was an African-American civil rights activist that established Tuskegee University. Booker T. Washington was born a slave and at the age of nine he was freed, thanks to the emancipation that was passed. Washington always wanted to have a good education and eventually be economically successful because most African-Americans didn’t have those privileges. As a result of this Washington worked very hard as a janitor and a teacher of an elementary school to gain his wealth, so he could eventually lead a university. In America, at the time when Washington was “building” his university, former slaves couldn’t get successful because white people didn’t want African-Americans to be better than them and/or that white people were more wealthy from birth; therefore, they were more qualified for a certain job. Washington believed he could help former slaves to have an education and be accepted in society, especially on the economic scale by creating a University and making a statement.

Everyone has made an argument. It could be as little as argueing so you can to your friend’s house to as big as why you should be president. Whenever you make an argument you’re trying to persuade the person to listen to you. The points you make are ethos (appeals to credibility), logos (logic), or pathos (emotion). You do it without knowing. In the movie The Great Debaters in the second debate (Wiley College Vs Oklahoma City College) logos was mostly present.

In the short story Battle Royale by Ralph Ellison, the theme was grounded in fear.The group of African American boys were forced in participation in harmful activities. His grandfather gave him advice in the beginning of the story. The meaning to his grandfather’s last words could be translated into two ways; to rebel or to follow. The grandfather was instructing him to agree with the white man's orders.

Around the end of the 19th century, there lived many people wanting equality between races. Two main leaders of the African American community that emerged during that time were W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. All though both of these men were fighting for the same cause, they disagreed greatly with each other relating to the strategies that could be used to create progress in both the social and economic aspects of how African Americans lived and were treated.

In this journal entry, I’ve talked about Ralph Ellison, A novelist and scholar, I also wrote about one of the main building blocks of fiction, which is symbol, in the short story “Battle Royal”. This important building block of fiction is what makes this short story so empowering and moving. This story gives us an insight on how hard it was being an African American male in the 1900s. Though it was hard, they did whatever the white men told them to do just to try and get ahead in life. This story resembles how hard it is still being a African American

What if you were a slave on a farm and grew up to be one of the most Intelligent and most Outstanding person there was in the time of the 1800’s? Or what If you were a born genius on there way to get a scholarship to Harvard university and getting a job as a philosopher, professor, Editor, Journalist, and a historian. Booker T Washington and W.E.B Dubois both agreed that there should be African American rights in the US. Although they had different opinions on how to get those rights for African Americans.

Washington in his second Paragraph speaks about how the African American peoples story is changing in a dramatic way. Booker T. Washington has great use of logos to get the African American peoples to never stop working. Mr. Washington enlightens African Americans that the transition is going to be rough but they will be successful, “our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom” (Paragraph 2). The transition will not be easy, nor will all the people freed will have success but any success will be the success of the African Americans as whole. What does that mean? As claimed by Booker T. Washington, “keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour, and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful” (Paragraph 2). The African American people will and over time work to get to the top, and that they will prove to the white man that they do belong whether success of the field or in the new world they have finally allowed to be successful in. In this paragraph Mr. Washington uses a emotional point and turned it into motivation for Africans to work hard and try their best no matter what lay ahead. “It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities” (Paragraph

The Battle Royal is a chapter from the novel “Invisible man” by Ralph Ellison. The plot is about a young afro-american male who has made a speech and is told he will obtain the opportunity to present his speech in front of a group of wealthy white men. The speech is about the afro-americans place in society and moreover their correlation to the white people. The boy has been praised because of his obedience towards the white population. The speech was going to be presented in the ballroom of a hotel but when the narrator arrives his events of the night takes a very unpleasant turn and he is forced to participate in the Battle Royal. This breathtaking story takes place in the early 20th century. Although the story does not give the reader any exact date it does give an essential clue about what time the story is set, in the beginning the narrator says that the american slaves were freed about eighty-five years ago and since the Emancipation Proclamation was issued around 1860 one could figure out this story takes place in the 1940s. By the way the author quote the white men and by the events that take place in the story one could also assume the story is set somewhere deep into the south of America. The story depicts the conditions for afro-americans in America (post slavery era).

Thesis statement: The two great leaders in the black community debating about the issues that face the Negro race and Du Bois gave a compelling argument by using pathos, logos and ethos to create an essay that will appear to all readers.

The patterns of trust and subsequent betrayal found in the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, serve to teach lessons about what it was like for African Americans in post-slavery America, when the book is set. The Invisible Man trusts easily and naively. Yet, despite working hard, he is betrayed by the institutions and people he looks up to as role models as they exploit his expectations for their own agenda. Overall, there are four strong examples of those taking advantage and hurting the Invisible Man. With each incident, he learns a lesson about how blatantly the black population is disregarded, along with being given an object that represents the underlying racism found in a society.

In Ralph Ellison's short story Battle Royal, we are introduced to an intelligent, newly graduated young boy. This boy, the narrator, is struggling with finding out who he is, and learning his true self and purpose. He says he is an "invisible man"; but not in the supernatural sense, in the sense that no one knows who he really is. Many conflicts arise around the main protagonist which reveals his true character. At the beginning of the story, many characteristics are revealed through his interactions with others and himself like being uncertain, a pushover, and constantly needing validation from others.

This boy was only dreading his trip to his new private school 30,000 feet in the air before blacking out and finding himself stranded and alone in a deserted island. But within the short time span of five weeks, he’s innocence was taken from him. I am lucky to interview Ralph Bradshaw, age 12, after weeks of silence, of his deadly, horrifying experience in the stranded island he would call “Hell” itself.

Throughout the novel of Lord of the Flies, William Golding provides a profound insight into human nature. Golding builds on a message that all human beings have natural evil inside them. To emphasize, the innate evil is revealed when there’s lack of civilization. The boys are constantly faced with numerous fears and eventually break up into two different groups. Although the boys believe the beast lives in the jungle, Golding makes it clear that it lurks in their hearts. The message of inner evil is portrayed throughout the book by the destruction of the conch, terrifying beast, and character developments to establish the hidden message throughout the novel.