Battle Royal Ralph Ellison Character Analysis

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Recommended: The theme of Racial Discrimination in the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

In Ralph Ellison’s novel “Invisible Man”, Ten young African American boys are thrown blindfolded into a ring and are forced to fight for the enjoyment of higher class white men in what the narrator calls a “Battle Royal” (Ellison p.17). Included in this battle royal is the main character, who was unwillingly thrown into the fight at the last second. Although the young African American men were initiated into the white society through the battle royal, they were not initiated as equals, and during the degrading fight, the narrator can only think of giving his speech. The African American men are not initiated as equals to the white men in the sense that they are not given the option to leave the fight and are being degraded for their …show more content…

As the fight became more intense the white men began to become more threatening, the narrator tells us “I had begun to worry about my speech again” (Ellison p.24). With men blindly throwing punches and yelling threats all around him, he couldn’t help but worry about his speech and how it would go. While the narrator was left alone in the ring with the largest of the fighters there was still only one thing on his mind “I wanted to deliver my speech more than anything else in the world, because I felt that only these men could judge truly my ability, and now this stupid clown was ruining my chances.” (Ellison p.25). Even in a one on one fight with the biggest of the men he could only think about how badly he wanted to give his speech. No matter what was going on around the narrator his speech continued to be his focus. The African American men are initiated into the white society but not equals to the white men. They are still seen as inferior and this is shown through the way their choice to leave is taken away and they are degraded for entertainment. The narrators focus was on his speech during the battle royal and how well it would go. While fighting the other men he could only worry about giving his speech at the

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