The Importance Of The Narrator In The Battle Royal, By Ralph Ellison

516 Words3 Pages
In the first section of the novel, the narrator seems to obsess over the fact others are blind to his existence. He takes us into his troubled world, a life of homelessness, thievery, and loneliness in the city of Harlem. Unfortunately, the narrator is continually hypocritical and refuses to see the truth about society’s apparent blindness. He sees only what he wants to see as to victimize himself and his continued misanthropic behavior makes the reader question his credibility. By asking society to reject their blindness, the narrator does not realize that he, too, would have to do so as well. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator (who insists on being nameless) is walking down the street when he ran into a white male who called him an insulting name. Instead of ignoring the confrontation and continuing onward, the narrator decides to beat the man up--kicking, punching and nearly killing him (Ellison 4-5). The following morning, the newspaper headline reads that the male was mugged, and this infuriates the narrator (Ellison 5). He now feels like he is invisible for the fact that his side…show more content…
Upon the end of the fight, he is still allowed to give his speech, although he is exhausted and bleeding. The audience applauds his speech upon it’s completion, recognizing his excellent speaking skills (Ellison 29-33). What’s contradictory though, is that the narrator feels he is never recognized or seen, but here, it’s obvious that he is. Because of his speech, he is given a college education by one of the audience members (Ellison 28). The narrator still believes that others are blind to his existence, but at this point in the book, they are almost glorifying it because of the speech. This proves to be a hypocritical point in the novel for the
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