Ralph Ellison Battle Royal Analysis

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. Ellison’s story depicted many scenes that involved the narrator not having a choice.

Surviving Alone The ‘Rite of Passage’ by Richard Wright has a preeminent place in the literary world because this book teaches a lesson of survival, white power, and influence. Wright is an American author who wrote novels, poems, and short stories. He is best known for his book ‘Black Boy’ and ‘Native Son’. The book ‘Rite of Passage’ written by Richard Wright is about a 15 year old boy who has straight A’s in school and the people he has lived with all his life is not really his family, which leads to his debacle journey. As Johnny goes through this difficult stage in life he decides to run away not thinking about where he’s going to stay or how he’s going to get food.

The horror begins when the narrator listens to a conversation between his father and grandfather, all while the elderly man laid on his deathbed. The narrator's grandfather told the boy to “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 swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.” In other words his grandfather was telling him to conform to the white people’s way of life in order to get ahead. If the reader were to take a deeper look into all of the symbolism in the story, one would find that the summation is equal to not only the struggle of this one black boy, but the struggle of all African Americans at the time in which this story takes place. It is clear that the only way for a black to excel at that time was to conform to the white society.

As he stated, he was not good at basketball sport all black people are supposed to be good at, neither was he a good dancer. Monk tried to nullify the geographical and class foundations of the cultural identity of most African Americans when he openly stated that “he did not grow up in any inner city or rural south” PAGE. From the early age, Monk was fighting with his two-ness and was trying very hard to challenge the stereotypical way of perceiving him. The fact that his grandfather, father, sister and brother were all highly educated and successful in their professional lives, that he graduated Harvard, proved that the time indeed healed some aspects of racism in America and African Americans were finally able to receive basic rights such as right to education, freedom of speech, and success. Nevertheless, Monk’s

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.

A white person treating a black person equally was completly agaisnt the ‘rule’ of white America. Huck does not see Jim as a slave anymore he sees Jim as a friend and he treats him like a friend. Huck would of never done this at the begning of his journey or when he found out Jim is a runaway. He evolved his morality, Twain finished the book after the civil war he did not believe in slavery it

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, is about Grant and Jefferson who are two black men that have drastically different views on life as one of them is college educated, while the other has no formal schooling. They refused to change their old ways and stayed closed minded throughout most of the novel . Being African American in Louisiana during the 1940s facing racism didn’t help Grant and Jefferson since whites did everything they could to degrade them. Towards the end, they evolved into caring and brave characters due to the influence of motherly-like women such as Grant's aunt Tante Lou and Miss Emma, who is Jefferson’s godmother . Miss Emma and Tante Lou, were influential female role models who instructed Grant to visit Jefferson and see him stand up for his rights, and so did Vivian, Mr. Wiggin's girlfriend who encouraged her significant other to follow Miss Emma’s and Tante Lou’s advice.

Several instances have it where Invisible Man is thinking about his family, where it be his letters to them (309), or his reluctance to face them after getting expelled (146). No matter what situation that Invisible Man ends up in, his family is usually first to mind as a result, which can also be said with the ordeals that the African American race experienced at the time. As previously discussed the importance of family was immense, so whatever occurred to one person reflected on everyone. In times of great disparity African Americans looked towards their families as a beacon of hope, especially when relatives were all they had left to turn to. In the end families always remained a considerable portion of the day to day lives of African

Through this conversation, the narrator gained respect and insight on Sonny's life in the times that he was not there. Sonny was cryptic in his speaking at first but eventually made it very clear to his brother and even said, "the reason I wanted to leave Harlem so bad was to get away from drugs" (89). The narrator does not have much to say, but ultimately blames all of this on the "vivid, killing streets of [their] childhood" (73), that neither of them had truly escaped. He once thought they both had, him by becoming a teacher and Sonny by simply not living in Harlem for years, but in this moment, he realizes that not much has really changed - they still faced those streets, the only difference now was that they knew what they inherit. Sonny convinced his brother to come watch him play - the narrator knowing he could not possibly say no.

During his early years, Martin Luther King got separated from his friend because of his race. His friend’s mom told him they couldn’t play anymore because he was African American. This impacted Martin Luther King to fight against racism because he probably didn’t want others to have a broken heart just because of their race. In addition, events he experienced when he was an adult impacted his role in the civil rights movement. Mahatma influenced Martin Luther King to never use violence.

He rather beat his own son than the police. This analogy is one of several that Coates uses to talk about oppression in America. Coates style can also be seen as very informative, he is telling is son everything he learned at the Mecca and his readings. He believes that school systems don’t necessarily tell children everything and doesn’t allow children to raise questions on particular issues. For instance, why were all the black heroes that he learned about always

This was a test to see if this Bertram remembered anything about this island. Sadly, Bertram could not answer the simplest question. When Jackson realized that this man has lost his identity, he said, “Well, what you must realize is that we living State-side now. We living under the eagle and maybe you don’t think that is good but your England never do us a damn thing except take, take, take” (112). Although Bertram may not be the reason why the England drain resources from the island, that fact that he lived there and have access to more resources made his own people think he is part of the of the reason because he had receive a scholarship to go study there.

Even though Washington believed that all men should be treated equally, his patient has earned him criticism. Critics argue that even with his reputation and political place (National Spokesperson) he did not demand for more equality for the African American population. Laws such as the Jim Crow and Black Codes prohibited blacks to vote or engage in political meetings. Overall, I think Washington did a great job of helping the African American community gain educational rights. He worked hard to give the blacks what they needed (education) and at the same time kept peace within the two races.

Response to Question 2: Education In the story of a young black man, Mark Mathabane conveys the significance of an education in Alexandra. He grows up under his father 's disbelief in going to school by reason that no black man would need to learn how to read and write to take care of his wife and children. Here is a quote from the book that provides evidence of Mark 's realization of the value of education. “‘He shunned school and, instead, grew up to live by the knife. And the same knife he lived by ended his life.” (Page 127).

This act acknowledged Scout’s courage, as the next day when Cecil Jacobs taunted Scout’s father for defending and African American, she followed her father’s advice and walked off without a fight. Another example of courage is during the trial when Scout explained: “We acquire no traumas from watching our father win or lose” (Lee 229), while other lawyer’s children “Get the wrong idea, they think opposing counsel to be the personal enemies of their parents” (Lee 229). It takes extreme courage for Scout to not take the opposing counsel to an offense and understand that her father’s fight for equality was correct despite contradiction from others. To Scout, courage means to do the correct thing, although it may be difficult during certain situations. For instance, after Boo Radley saved Jem and brought him home, he asked Scout: “Will you take me home” (Lee 372), although Scout did not want to she still brought Boo to his destination.