Effective Use Of Allegory In Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal

Battle Royal by Ralph Ellison (1952)

Ralph Ellison’s short story “Battle Royal” (Ellison 278-288) is about a young African American protagonist who is so well spoken that he is invited to a prestigious hotel ballroom to present the speech he had given the night before, at his high school graduation to an all white men’s club. Instead, he asked to participate in a “Battle” against the other 9 men who were paid to come there for the evening’s entertainment. The short story is effective because it really helps the reader to understand the struggle African American men were going through for equality and identity in society throughout history. Instead of writing a story with facts about discrimination and statistics on them, he
“There was nothing to do but what we were told.” (Ellison 281par.3). This imagery of the white blindfold is an allegory and it is effective because it strips them of their identities, or their place in society. Each man is now for himself, or so it seems. “It was complete anarchy. Everybody fought everybody else. No group fought together for long.”(Ellison 283 par.1). Little to the narrators knowledge all of the other men have made an agreement amongst themselves as to who would be left to duke it out in the
His speech about humility while he felt he was better than any man there of color. It sent a contradictory message to me, because he felt better than but still allowed the white men to control his actions of the evening by doing what they told him to do; just to get the money instead of standing up for himself and what he felt was right. Then he took the briefcase of money and was so happy about it, but they were only sending him to a school for black men. Where is the pride, or dignity in that? If they had really been doing him a favor they would have allowed him the same education their children where getting. Now that is what I feel would’ve been fair. He spoke of “cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man” (Ellison 286 par.6) and yet these relations of the evening were far from friendly. This is also another