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Social Injustices and the American Dream in Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal”

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Social Injustices and the American Dream in Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal”
Social Injustices and the American Dream in Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” Ralph Ellison’s “The Battle Royal” represents the socioeconomic tensions in the early twentieth century. Written in 1952, Ellison brings light to the fact black citizens were still being seen as inferior to their white counterparts decades after slavery was abolished. In a society where black citizens were seen as second-rate, they were mostly given only second-rate opportunities. Without a fair, level playing field, there are no equal chances to obtain the American Dream. According to the ideals of the American Dream, anyone who works hard enough can rise from “rags to riches.” Yet, there are a vast number of people within this country who do not have equal opportunities due to their race and socioeconomic class. The narrator of “The Battle Royal,” who recently obtained the honor of being valedictorian of his high school class, represents the suffocating limits given to black people in regards to educational and social changes on improving their standard of living. The narrator successfully competing with his white counterparts diminishes as the audience, as well as himself, realize he must partake in a boxing match between his other black peers if he wanted to recite his speech for the affluent white hosts of the event. His goal was to obtain a scholarship to further his education, and what he had to endure would be unfathomable for a young white man aspiring for the same goal. The audience now sees the white power dynamics take hold of his opportunities. All the narrator’s hard work to reach the American Dream were discouraged under the allusion that his persistence and hard work would give him an equal chance with white society. Within Ralph Ellison’s chapter, “The Battle Royal,” he critiques and questions the beliefs of an infamous black writer, Booker T. Washington. The narrator quotes Washington in his speech to the powerful white men. The philosophies of Washington specified
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