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Ralph Ellison Battle Royal Analysis

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Years ago African Americans and Caucasians didn’t get along due to slavery. Ralph Ellison is telling a story about a young African American ‘narrator” about him being invisible. The narrator seems that if you can’t be seen then you can’t be heard. He had to learn that he was nobody. As his grandfather is on his deathbed and he gives him a word of wisdom and it stuck with him throughout the story. The young boy is a good speaker, he is asked to give a speech in front of Caucasians, but he asked to fight first in ‘Battle Royal”. Being an African American can be very difficult due to racism, being invisible and dealing with your surroundings. In this short story “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison the author illustrates the rest of the attention …show more content…

The significance of the dream served as an illustration of a systematic tactic to keep the narrator chasing something he can’t contain. The narrator says ‘all my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was”, all the envelopes represented the people that he was asking answers from and when he finally gets to the letter and it represents the point where he was invisible. No matter what level of achievement the narrator reach, he was part of a system that was set up for him to fail. Until the narrator started answering his on questions instead of outside sources, he does not come the full realization that he is invisible. Although the narrator may value an effort to raise awareness, are in vain that the white men refuse to move.
In conclusion due to racism is an enormous problem that we had years ago and we have today. The young African American had to learn that he didn’t have anybody but himself. But his grandfather gave him wisdom and it will stick with him forever. Through all the transpired Ellison’s is able to depict the use of rest of attention and ultimately it illustrates what it truly means to be invisible. Due to having to fight against blacks blindfolded, giving his speech and getting a letter in a briefcase was a lot for

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