The Overlook on Battle Royale Battle Royal, by Ralph Ellison is a short story about a young African American boy who takes his grandfather’s very last words to heart he uses these words as motivation and presents a speech at his graduation, so great that the superintendent invited him to read it at Battle Royal, after presenting the speech to all the leading white citizens he feels as if he has made his grandfather proud. Once entering the main ballroom where Battle Royale is taking place the young boy denotes that it’s not what he expected, and is then forced to take part in a fight. “There was nothing to do but what we were told.” The young boy and a few others were blind folded and expected to beat up on each other. After a while he was one of the last boys in the ring having to face a vicious black male “Tatlock, the biggest of the gang.” The young boy didn’t care to win the fight he was more focused on delivering his speech. Finally when the fight was over the boys were tricked into grabbing coins, bills and pieces of gold which were intentionally placed on an electric rug shocking everyone who tried grabbing them, but the boys didn’t care.
A honorary expectation was bestowed upon him in the form of a request to deliver a speech to an assembly comprised of the town’s “leading white citizens” (Meyer 209). The narrator seemed certain that he would arrive at the specified location and just simply deliver his speech. However, the unsuspecting young man found himself being pulled rapidly into a cruel initiation instigated according to the color of his skin. The initiation started shortly after he arrived to the town gathering. He was informed that he was to join several of his peers in the battle royal, as it was considered part of the entertainment for the evening.
Battle Royal by Ralph Ellison follows the life of a young African-American who looks up to his grandfather although his grandfather describes himself as a "traitor to his people". The narrator’s idea that his grandfather expresses, and when he is called to give a speech to a group of upper-class white folks, he is persuaded to fight a group of kids of the same age. He is defeated in the fight, yet he goes on to make his speech in front of the crowd. His persistence to give his speech in front of people after he lost in a fight conveys Ellison's expression of appointing identity to his main character. From reading this story, I sensed a major theme of representing one’s self as an individual opposed to giving into what society wants you to do.
Some examples are the stripper, the actual battle royal itself, and the briefcase. The stripper in “Battle Royal” was a pretty obvious symbol for me to find. In the story, the black boys are all rushed into a ballroom of the hotel and they stand in a group surrounded by white men and in the center off all this stood a blonde woman completely naked. As the woman began to dance the black boys all immediately became terrified and frantic because they didn’t know what to do. Some look down because they don’t want to be accused of looking at her.
It is here that they are further humiliated in front of the group when a naked blond begins to dance in front of them causing the white men to begin to threaten the group of boys; some were threats to not look at the girl and some were threats that they have to look at the girl. This causes further confusion for the narrator as well as the other group of boys because not only are the threatened and humiliated publicly they are also placed into a situation in which they have no chance of winning. While the girl was dancing around the boys naked one of the boys actually becomes so humiliated that he faints and another boy begins to cry and plead that he wants to go home. This makes an impression on the narrator because he is still confused on what he should actually do in his current situation. After the spectacle in front of them leaves the boys are led to a ring and told that they would be blindfolded and have to fight each other this is the point that the battle royal is about to begin.
"I spoke automatically and with such fervor that I did not realize that the men were still talking and laughing until my dry mouth filling up with blood from the cut almost strangled me” (251). He raises his voice louder despite the pain, making sure his speech is heard. When the protagonist was done giving his speech the superintendent came up and handed him a calfskin briefcase. “My fingers a-tremble, I complied, smelling the fresh leather and finding an official-looking document inside. It was a scholarship to the state college for Negroes.
Coach Carter is Autocratic at the start of the film when he gave the boys contracts and then changed styles during the film and then used Autocratic at the end of the film when the boys took advantage of his trust when he was using the management style Laissez Faire. He was Autocratic by telling what the boys need to do to become “Champion” the boys had no say at the start of training when he just became coach they needed to do whatever he said. Coach Carter used Persuasive when Timo Cruz failed he’s task of 1000 Suicides and 2500 Push ups. Coach Carter’s players persuade him by letting them help him complete his task and then he will get to play. Coach Carter changes from Autocratic to Persuasive when Timo Cruz didn’t complete the task set by Coach Carter of 1000 suicides and 2500 push ups, but then the team mates of Timo Cruz decided to help him and complete his task by doing some suicides and push ups.
Tiffany and Marie Jo thought he was trying to join the fight and make it into a brawl out. They pulled his fake dried up Jerry Curl and beat him up. And like Tiffany was before, he was on the ground. The girls Hi-5’d each other and forgot what they were fighting for instantly. Tiffany and Marie Jo departed and made their way little did they know they would meet each other soon.
The Power Of The English Language Evidence that Maya Angelou’s essay “Graduation” might be a parable of slavery begins taking shape when Mr. Edward Donleavy is introduced as the guest speaker to the Lafayette Country Training School’s graduating class of 1940 (168). Donleavy, who is a white man, throughout his commencement speech insults the graduating class and the audience, which are all black. Donleavy boasted of his procurement of improvements in academics such to Central School, which was a white school, such as receiving the “newest microscopes and chemistry equipment” (168), while he implied that blacks were maybe incapable of achieving the level of academia that would require such equipment. Instead, Donleavy pointed out athletic
Racial Glaze Have you ever been humiliated for the entrainment of others? In Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal,” a young black man is forced to strip off his clothes and fight blindfolded with his peers in front of the white southern town leaders. After the fight and embarrassment had ended, he was then told you stand up, bloodied and disoriented, and recite his graduation speech. The vague southern setting of Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” supports the central idea that sometimes in a society dominated by racism, personal accomplishments and individuality are disregarded. In “Battle Royal,” Ellison gives an obscure description of the time and place in which the story is set.