Jackie McClellan

Intro. to Literature

10/16/00

Refusing to Fight

in Ralph Ellison’s

Battle Royal

            The 1940s represent a decade of turmoil for the United States in general.   Perhaps no group of people struggled more during that time period, however, than African Americans.  With racial segregation prevalent, particularly in the South, opportunity was lacking for African-Americans.  However, Ralph Ellison suggests in “Battle Royal” that due to the lack of racial unity among black men as well as a certain amount of naiveté, black men prevented themselves from succeeding more so than their white oppressors.

            With few outlets to succeed in America at the time, African Americans put forth extra effort to succeed when they were given a chance.  Often times, this set black men at odds with each other, as they fought to get ahead in a white-dominated society.  In “Battle Royal”, this type of dog-eat-dog behavior is duly noted in the actual fight scene.  From the moment the narrator steps into the elevator with his classmates, he “felt superior to them in [his] way” (200), and yet he also felt intimidated by their overwhelming fierceness.  The only hint of unity that the reader can sense is when all the boys are thrown together, feeling awkward and uncomfortable at the site of the naked white girl in front of them.  This distorted sense of unity ends as they are blindfolded and thrown into the ring together.  This immediately draws a parallel to society in general, as black men were thrown out into the world, competing against each other to see who would succeed.  Likewise, the boys immediately turn on each other, as “everybody fought everybody else.  No group fought together for long” (203).  Though it is their white oppressors that serve as a catalyst for this kind of disunity, it is up to them to stand together as one and fight to win over white dominance, not to be at constant war with each other, hoping for the same outcome.

            This type of intra-racial conflict is explored further in the scene where the narrator must fight Tatlock.  The narrator had been at this point “fighting automatically” (203), fighting without a solid purpose, fighting against members of his own race, with whom he went to school.  Now, he must face his biggest challenge to prove himself physically to the white men by fighting the biggest boy, Tatlock.  Left in the ring, it is the strong versus the week, the uneducated against the educated.  With fear and anger both in his eyes, Tatlock wants nothing more than to rip the narrator apart, perhaps perversely taking his own frustrations meant for the white men who have done this to him out on the narrator.  This is clear when he is asked if he is fighting for these men, and he responds, “For me, sonofabitch” (204).  That is the same vulgarity that had been shouted at all the boys by the white men.  Thus, Tatlock, large in stature and dense in wit, represents the distorted sense of anger felt by the black boys.  Rather than expressing it toward the ones holding them back from opportunity, it has been displaced and is directed at each other, which the white men wanted all along.

            In addition to the fight, the boys are once again thrown together to grab all the coins that they can.  More concerned with doing what they are told and seizing the coins than pain they experience, they cope with the fact that the rug is electrified and do not come to the realization that they once again are being set up by the white men.  Oblivious to the fact that they are being tricked and mocked, the boys scramble for the coins in a frenzy, like that of animals, only for the narrator to find out later that the coins were actually tokens.  Once again, they had been put in a situation at war with each other, struggling for a goal that resulted in an empty conquest.

            Before the fight, Ellison uses symbolism to portray how the black men of society at the time viewed the American Dream.  This is represented by the white girl with the American flag tattooed on her stomach.  As a symbol, the white girl represents the chance at opportunity available to the citizens of this country.  The placement of the tattoo on a naked woman suggests that, somehow, the American Dream has been corrupted by those who had been able to live it out.  The white men grab and grope at her, sexually harass her, and are able to gaze upon her.  She is tangible to them, yet this holds no greatness for them.  They abuse her as much as they can without a second thought. 

            The girl holds an entirely different meaning for the black men.  They dare not look at her, as the narrator immediately feels “a wave of irrational guilt and fear.” (201)  She is the forbidden fruit of the country, which they are not allowed to actively participate in.  She is still a dream for them, an unattainable goal that is waved before their eyes to taunt them, to show them what they can not achieve.  But, this type of thinking is able to be changed as she becomes ‘human’ for the narrator.  He believes that “she saw only [him] with her impersonal eyes” (201).  He even has a moment where he can hear her “calling to [him] from the angry surface of some gray and threatening sea” (201).  Here, the narrator has a very personal encounter with a very impersonal character.  He believes that he has connected with the woman, but does nothing about it.  Many others around him even want to run from the room.  They are scared to look because of what the white men will do to them.  They feel awkward and uncomfortable because they are not bold enough to look at what is in front of them.  It is through this symbolic moment that Ellison believes that the black men did not try hard enough to attain the seemingly unattainable.

            It is evident that the narrator harbors a great deal of naiveté throughout the story, as he was “looking for [himself] and asking everyone [else] questions which [only he] could answer” (199).  As an “invisible man” (199), it is up to him to better himself and prove to the white men that he is an intelligent man, worthy of becoming a leader.  But, viewing himself as a “potential Booker T. Washington” (200), it is certain that his speech, in which he stated that humility is the key to success contradicts this image that he held.  A black man could not excel by being humble, yet he was forced to.  Constantly conscious of what the prominent white men think of him, the narrator so desperately wants to deliver his speech to show off his ability.  This consumes him so much so that he is willing to endure all of the humiliation and violence in the process.

            Furthermore, at the first chance to stand up for himself and his race, a result of an error in his speech, he backs down and continues to speak, unbothered by the fact that he does not impress the men, but rather is continuously mocked by them.  He shows the potential to be defiant in the face of oppression, saying “social equality” (207), rather than responsibility, a phrase he had known to be controversial and debated constantly.  It is by this that the reader is aware that the narrator perhaps understands the situation of black men in America, yet does not fully comprehend how large a problem it is, or that there is a chance to fight it.  When given a chance to repeat the phrase, he refuses, instead speaking what he believes they want to hear.  If he did repeat, this would suggest boldness of character, but there is no indication that this even enters the narrator’s mind.  His only concern appears to be delivering a flawless speech to a room full of drunken white men, who can do nothing but look upon him with great disdain, while he believes himself to be doing something right.  It is in this way that the narrator overlooks an opportunity to stand up for injustice by simply obeying the rules set forth by a society that does not even take him seriously.

            In addition, the narrator’s intellectualization of everything, particularly his grandfather’s words, becomes a hindrance that he needs to overcome in order to succeed.  From the very beginning, the narrator’s main goal is to show how smart he is, so much so, that it does not even phase him one bit that he is about to be put in a situation for which he is not prepared.  In a room full of the toughest boys in school, his only thought is that “fighting a battle royal might detract from the dignity of [his] speech” (200).  This foolish attitude continues as he is being severely beaten, where not once does he consider why he is there or what he has done to deserve this kind of abuse.  Instead of resisting this horrible treatment, he is hopeful about what is to come, and hopes that he will be rewarded.  The narrator does not seem to comprehend that the men of the Battle Royal are not interested in his accomplishments.  Their actual goal is to set the boys up for a fall for their personal amusement.  When the boys succumb to this, it sets them farther back from achieving social equality.

            The narrator is personally affected by the stigma that his grandfather has left behind.  His grandfather believed that, as a black man in society, the only thing to do is to “overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction” (199).  With this type of ideology in mind, the narrator believes his achievements to be partly failures, going against the advice of his grandfather, causing him to feel guilty.  As “the old man’s words were like a curse,” (200) the narrator is further confused because he believes himself to be doing something treacherous, as his grandfather had described.  What he fails to understand is that his grandfather’s talk of being a traitor and a spy were really a judgment of his own character; he had been a weak man for not fighting for his people, not because he felt that he could never please the white men of society. The narrator’s misconception of these words causes him to worry about the latter, focusing on making the white men proud rather than bettering himself.  His inner-conflict is worsened by the dream he has after receiving a scholarship to an all black college.  He cannot even enjoy this award for long, as he is burdened by the spirit of his grandfather.  Seeing the words “Keep This Nigger-Boy Running” (209) in his dream, it is something he will not soon forget and puts a damper on the award.  It is in this way that the reader sees the weakness of the narrator’s character, who is greatly affected by the words of his grandfather and how he is perceived by the white men.  This will ultimately be his downfall, holding him back from ever becoming a great leader like his hero, Booker T. Washington.

            Thus, it can be concluded from Ellison’s “Battle Royal” that, in the1940s, a time of racial prejudice, black males may have been their own worst enemy in trying to succeed and create opportunities for themselves.  Allowing themselves to be pit against each other, there was no hope of propelling their status while they did not support one another as a whole race.  Turning their anger toward each other rather than the white men who had put them in these situations, the struggle of black men transitioned from the fight for justice as a people to a war with other black men, so as to boost themselves in the eyes of the white man.  They furthermore allowed themselves to be manipulated, mocked, scorned, and beaten, yet still stood up afterward to do what they were told.  As inner-conflict combined with complete oblivion to the racial situation grew, Ellison criticizes African Americans of the time for not banding together and recognizing the problem that was social inequality.