Ralph Ellison’s Essay, Battle Royal

In Ralph Ellison’s essay “Battle Royal” he describes a Negro boy, timid and compliant,

comes to a white smoker in a Southern town: he is to be awarded a scholarship. Together with

several other Negroes he is rushed to the front of the ballroom, where a sumptuous blonde

tantalized and frightens them by dancing in the nude. Blindfolded, the Negro boys stage a

“battle royal, “ a free-for-all in which they pummel each other to the drunken shouts of the

whites. “Practical jokes,” humiliations, terrors—and then the boy delivers a prepared speech of

gratitude to his white benefactors. Any person with values and morals would be appalled and

ashamed by that the way the white men behaved.

The nightmare begins after the narrator makes a speech before his class. The narrator is highly praised for this speech and is asked to speak again to some of the important white citizens of his town. After the young Negro arrived at the hotel he is put in boxing shorts and rushed to the front of the ballroom. Where all these important men were sitting, laughing, smoking, and drinking whiskey. While being lined up with the other young Negro boys he noticed a nude white, blonde haired female and was overcome by her. The main goal of the sumptuous nude blonde dancing was to embarrass and humiliate the young Negroes. The excitement and natural feeling of arousal was the primary goal of the influential white men. These men wanted ...