battle royal
The excerpt Battle Royal is from the book Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison. The subject matter of the entire book is pretty evident from the first chapter. This excerpt just so happens to be the first chapter. When reading this excerpt, you can instantly tell what time period the book takes place. To show how degrading society was during these times, Ellison employs the use of narrative voice and characterization in Battle Royal. When Ellison is telling this story, he uses the pronoun “I” so he lets the reader know this is his story. He also goes very personal when telling the story of his grandfather’s last words on his death bed. Ellison even tells us that when writing the story it is the first time they have been spoken outside his family. His grandfather’s words basically said to play the white man, let them believe that you were trying to please them. These words affected Ellison the rest of his life, as we will see while reading this. Ellison gave a speech at his graduation that he was highly praised for. Due to this he was invited to give the speech to some of the highest white citizens in his town, it was a huge victory in his community. What he wasn’t expecting however was to participate in the Battle Royal. He was told since he was already going to be there to join in the battle. Characterization takes some form here, because the battle is entertainment for the white men, and the people doing the entertaining were some of the local black students. This includes Ellison, who was asked there to give his speech he was praised so openly for. Not only was the Battle entertainment, there was a lady dancer there also. Almost every important white citizen was at this function. Including one of the pastors, now you wouldn’t expect a pastor to be okay watching a naked woman dancing around a room full of men. What does this do to the perspective had on the life of a pastor? It isn’t okay for Christians to have premarital sex, watch and do certain things,