Filled to the brim with blaring racism, disgusting profanity, and poisonous hated, Ralph Ellison’s Battle Royal evokes emotion to the fullest extent. The painfully lucid imagery and descriptive passages that depict the horrifying bigotry and intolerance towards the narrator make Battle Royal hard to stomach and harder yet to fully emotionally comprehend. However, though the sickening plotline of violence and degradation is most striking and first captures the eye (or perhaps more fittingly, the heart), Ellison’s story cannot be solely classified as a narrative of racial injustice and inequality: it is, in fact, a story of the struggle for identity.
“I am an invisible man!” Already within the first paragraph, Ellison provides us with the material to piece together the fact that the narrator is lost. “All my life I had been looking for something…I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer.” Ellison then introduces a new element: a curse. It is with this curse bestowed by the narrator’s grandfather while on his deathbed, that the narrator begins his descent into a rather deep identity crisis. The grandfather spoke of the ongoing fight between races, of his role as a quiet “traitor”, of his emphasis on beating the white man by playing his own game of feigned respect and good conduct. His words, though perhaps meant to be instructive, instantly became something of a catalyst to his impressionable grandson, for as soon as they were uttered, they hardened into chains that bound the narrator to a split life. From that point on, whenever the narrator felt joy or compassion from being kind and humble to a member of the white community, he felt the biting meaning behind his grandfathers words: “And what puzzled me was that the old man had defined it as treachery”. Such an internal battle could only lead to a sense of tumultuous loss of one’s own concept of identity.
It is upon this axis of split identity that the narrator continues to rotate blindly throughout the duration of the story. Ever since the moment the curse it spoken, the narrator seems to lose his true self underneath the weight of it. When faced with the horrors within the ring of the Battle Royal, the narrator can very clearly and easily feel physical pain and suffering. He can very easily distinguish the blows to his head, the taste of his own blood, and the sounds of racist jeering and yelling all around him. His level of intelligence is high and his sense of moral recognition isProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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intact, “Some were still crying and in hysteria. But as we tried to leave we were stopped and ordered to get into the ring. There was nothing to do but what we were told.” However, though fully able to decipher and understand the terrors of the violent situation he has been put into, the narrator’s sense of self (stemming from lack of known identity) remains confused and entirely distorted as he cannot give up his trust and faith in the “good” conduct of the white men. This warped viewpoint presents itself multiple times throughout the text, but most problematically when the narrator receives his prize at the end of the night, “I was so moved that I could hardly express my thanks…I was overjoyed; I did not even mind when I discovered the gold pieces I had scrambled for were brass pocket tokens advertising a certain make of automobile.” If for no other reason than this twisted outlook alone, it is evident that thanks to the curse that split his identity in half, the narrator truly is an invisible man.(652)
Questions:
Is there any way to look upon the curse as a blessing?
If there had been no curse to set his fate, how do you think the narrator would have acted?
What is your definition of the meaning behind “the invisible man”
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Hey Christina,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, let me say that I really loved your writing style in this post. I think that your sentence structure and word choice could convince anyone of your argument, regardless of the content!
However, this is definitely not to say that you did not have valid points; I really liked your ideas and your analysis of the short story. I thought that it was a good idea to focus on the descriptive elements of the short story, because the descriptions were the part that I remembered most. The lurid descriptions grabbed my attention and conveyed to me the horrifying nature of the narrator's situation.
I was also very interested in your discussion of the internal crisis of the narrator. I, too, was confused that even when the narrator is being tortured and humiliated, he is still happy to acquiesce to the will of the white men. I was shocked that he did not seem to see anything wrong with the electrocution game. He willingly played along, just trying to keep himself out of danger. Intellectually, he must have known that the white men were all laughing at the black boys grabbing any money that they could get, yet he still tried to get as much money as he could. He knew that this game was degrading and a form of sadistic entertainment, but he took it in stride. Your calling this situation a "twisted outlook" really seemed to sum it up. Also, the white men felt no compunctions about their actions, but when the narrator accidentally slips and says "equality," he is immediately forced to recant his statement and feels an external and an internal sense of wrongness. After all, as one white man says, "We mean to do right by you, but you've got to know your place at all times."
I also agree with your idea of a "split identity" in the last paragraph, especially when pertaining to the ending. I was surprised that the narrator did not feel more shame. He did attain a major goal of his, but this achievement came with a price, and that price was his dignity. I think that this is why he is such a split personality at the end; he his one one hand happy for his own success, but on the other hand is ashamed of his humiliation and betrayal of his grandfather. In the end, he is still searching for his true identity and is still trying to find his place in the world.
Thank you Christina for a great analysis and many salient points!
Hey Christina,
ReplyDeleteThis is really good. I tried to come up with some constructive criticism to give you, so that you could improve your paper, but I have nothing to complain about about. I think that the struggle going on in this guys head is really interesting, and the way you discussed his attempt not to betray his grandfather, and the notion of what a "traitor" really is is quite interesting. Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to hear/read more of your essays.