How Does Ralph Ellison Use Metaphors In Battle Royal

In the early twentieth century racial and gender discrimination were prominent in the American South lifestyle. The separation of treatment among African Americans, females and Caucasian males formed tension. African Americans and women were believed to be socially inferior and lived only in the shadows of Caucasian males. Ralph Ellison writes about a nameless protagonist who struggles to find his place in society in the early 20th century in the south. Ralph Ellison's short story ‘‘Battle Royal’’ paints a clear picture using imagery and satire of a particularly alarming event in a young African Americans man’s life after a high school graduation. Ralph Ellison’s short story “Battle Royal” exhibits literary mythological criticism at its best

Therefore, Ellison’s short story “Battle Royal” uses metaphors to exhibit the racial equality issues during the royal battle. The battles is the metaphor of the constant fight for racial equality African Americans were forced to endure. African Americans were automatically in the fight to preserve themselves within the society of Caucasian control. The battle royal is a metaphor that insertions the narrator into an intense, confusing world rules where the rules of a society do not apply and where “….there are "no rounds [and] no bells at three-minute intervals to relieve [the] exhaustion “(Ellison 279). The battle between African Americans was entertainment for the Caucasian to see African Americans fight among each other for recognition or for financial gain. Of course, Ellison’s short story “Battle Royal” uses metaphors to exhibit the racial equality issues, during the early twentieth century with the white blind fold covering the eyes of the African Americans narrator. The white blindfold represent the figurative blindness to the true intentions of the Caucasian men. In the situation where the narrator is blindfolded with the white cloth he describes his experience that he is in constant terror for his life, fear of doing something wrong before his community and especially the Caucasian community. The white blindfold is a metaphors

The nude dancer represents the oppression of women and African Americans by Caucasian men, and her tattoo stands for the freedom the African Americans desire to have. The blindfold is symbolic of the narrator’s figurative and literal blindness, and the battle itself is representative of the African Americans fight for equality. “Battle Royal” expresses the difficulty facing African Americans people as they try to achieve social equality. In order for the nameless narrator to receive his prize he must be able to endure whatever the Caucasian want him to do which the narrator illustrates in the battle royal boxing match. During the early twenty century African American and women were treated like puppet on a string, an object of entertainment for Caucasian males. Ralph Ellison’s short story “Battle Royal” exhibits literary mythological criticism at its best as it relates to the social equality, racial equality and social mobility during the early twentieth century Americans faced. It addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans early in the twentieth