Music And Imagery In Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal

Black lives matter. The contemporary movement started in 2013 campaigns against the brutality, prejudice, and racism experienced by the African American community in America. The activist group works to unite African Americans in one common message: they will be heard and they will not be invisible. However, this idea of invisibility has been prevalent in African-American history since the Middle Passage. African Americans have continually felt forcibly unnoticed in society, played with as toys for entertainment and productivity purposes only. This idea can be seen in Ralph Ellison’s Battle Royal, written in 1947, but published in 1952 as the first chapter of the novel Invisible Man. This time period for Ellison was extremely influential in

Though written prior to the Jazz Age, Ellison himself was extremely influenced by jazz music, being a trumpet player himself (Radford 1). Just as melodies flow in music, Ellison’s style of writing flows in a poetic manner. The short story mirrors a musical composition, where the style and the tempo of the music playing reflect what is going on. When the music “quickened” (Ellison 183), the scene quickly intensified where the stripper began to be groped by the overstimulated white men. Furthermore, while no music was explicitly stated during the boxing scene, Ellison’s writing style hinted at the mood of the scene. The use short, blunt sentences reflects the scene as the protagonist is receiving constant, direct punches (Radford 1). And the violent yelling of the white men during this scene reflect the violence occurring in the boxing ring. It is at these times, where a lot of action is occurring, that the abrasive noise overshadows the protagonist. Here is almost impossible to truly see what the protagonist is feeling and thinking about the scene before, besides his own obvious fears. Battle Royal also consists of the repetition of the clarinet, specifically in an erotic manner. The clarinet at first is playing “sensuously” (Ellison 182), in a persuasive manner. While the clarinet is subconsciously bringing the men into the ballroom, symbolically, the clarinet can be seen as persuading the boys to be controlled, to be pawns in their games. Additionally, the story only consists of recordings of music; there is no live jazz music being played. This means earlier performances are being played over and over again. This is similar to how the white men are instilling their ideals into African Americans; by forcing the repetition of their repression (Puskar 7). This repetitive manner can be seen when the protagonist