| Title | : | Battle Royal |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle , Hardcover , Paperback , Audiobook & More |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
Battle Royal Reviews
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I wanted to do a little Juneteenth reading, and found this online (along with many other stories I’m anxious to read now). I didn’t realize when I started that it’s the opening chapter of Ellison’s
Invisible Man, which has now rocketed up my TBR list.
This story of a sick and twisted event, probably in the early 1930’s, is horrific reading. You are in the head of the narrator, looking back on his boyhood, and the racist abuse is described through his own terror and pain. But before that, we are teased with a ray of hope, in the most intriguing character of his grandfather.
“I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed. About eighty-five years ago they were told they were free, united with others of our country in everything pertaining to the common good, and, in everything social, separate like the fingers of the hand. And they believed it. They exulted in it. They stayed in their place, worked hard, and brought up my father to do the same. But my grandfather is the one. He was an odd old guy, my grandfather, and I am told I take after him. It was he who caused the trouble.”
The writing is vivid and compelling.
Invisible Man will surely be grueling but enlightening, and I hope to read it soon. -
As I was reading Ralph Ellison's, "Battle Royal" I found myself wanting to turn away, flip to the next page, do anything to gloss over the disturbing abuse taking place. This then led me to thinking, that society "glossing over the truth" was exactly what Ralph Ellison was trying to portray throughout his story. The "blindness" of our nation at a time when African Americans were abused, segregated, and mocked will forever be a black stain across our country's shining record. The story begins with our protagonist being haunted by his grandfather's dying words that, "…our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemies country ever since I gave my gun back to the reconstruction." We are immediately left with the question, traitor of what? I believe it to be a traitor of race. From my own interpretations I believe that the grandfather is warning the grandson to always fight for his race and the movement toward equality. Our main character is beaten and humiliated for nothing more than his race. However, in spite of every obstacle he faces he holds on to his pride. This novel provides a glimpse of the kind of treatment that many Americans were subject too, but never spoken about.
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This was a great commentary on the anti-SJW crowd of the early 20th century. The peak of the story for me was when the African-American protagonist was giving a speech to some whites on "social responsibility" but accidentally said "social equality" instead. All the old white men had been laughing and talking, ignoring him the whole time he was giving his speech, but when he said that phrase, they got silent, causing him to fear he would be reprimanded. Luckily for him, they didn't notice he said it, and he actually ended up receiving a reward for his efforts. Like all the civil-rights literature I've read, this makes me think of current events. Many people nowadays still get annoyed when somebody brings up social equality.
Ralph Ellison's writing is a good first-hand reminder of what our society was like not too long ago. It's gripping and full of emotion, causing the reader to feel anger and sadness that people would treat others the way they did. This is the first chapter of Ellison's most famous book, The Invisible Man, and it convinced me that I must read the rest of the book in its entirety. -
It's too early to state what I think of this story, with any real level of specificity, as I just read it and looked up these reviews.
BUT, I must say I am discouraged reading many of the Goodread's reviews of "Battle Royal" that sound as if they were written by students who have poor if not completely confused senses of historical context.
Students: this story does not take place in the 1950's or 60's. (This is not to say or imply, of course, that many forms of discrimination did not take place at those times; they did but the 50's and the 60's were a very different era in black history in the US.)
The short story, "Battle Royal", is the first chapter of Ralph Ellison's deservedly famous and influential novel "Invisible Man". "Invisible Man" was published in 1952, the story was published before the novel, in l948. Thus, we know from these dates alone that the story cannot take place in the 50's or 60's.
However, if one looks at the opening sentence of the story--"It goes a long way back, some twenty years."--there is a suggestion that the action of the story is taking place in the 1920's or perhaps early 1930's. Ellison himself was born in 1914, and the story and the novel are highly autobiographical. If Ellison graduated from high school at 17 or 18, then placing the action of the story in the late 20's/early 30's makes sense (1914 plus 17 years is 1931.
...Now that I got that off my chest, I'm going to re-read the story and look at more reviews later. -
'All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself.'
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To see life as a young man growing up in the 1950's was very dark. It also made him and myself realize that they still wasn't free from abused, segregation from the white man. To think the African American man is still going thru this today. The main character was didn't have a man but if he is not even notice as a man then why name him. He truly was the "invisible man" who is naive on how the white man treat him and his people. I love the grandfather even though he wasn't in the story for long but his words always haunted his grandson when he told his father on his death bed. " Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I gave up my gun back in the. Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swollen you till they vomit or bust wide open."
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There is a lot to digest within Battle Royal, mostly, I believe, it is a prophetic exploration of the Grandfather’s dying words through the cruel situation the protagonist finds himself in by way of humility itself. Which, is the thread of irony running through the very center of this narrative.
This brutal challenge of the Protagonist’s and Grandfather’s ideals seem to lead the main character toward an evolution of principles, though this only hinted at and not expounded upon in the last paragraph of the story.
Overall, battle royal calls into question the effectiveness of the “type” of humility proselytized by the Grandfather and protagonist himself in the battle for social equality for the black community. -
2.7 stars
This is one of the stories they have you read in school to shock you into considering the themes involved. This is not remotely a nice story. Everything is horrible, and nothing good happens. The most prevalent issues are racism and sexism, as the treatment of black people and the woman in this is terrible. I'm sure on a close reading there is a lot to unpack and examine, but after my first reading, I don't really care to. -
Bleak and ironic. Reminds me of when I, a Hispanic male, was put in a "behavior intensive" unit (read: school-to-prison pipeline waiting room) in fourth grade because of a false diagnosis of ADD/ADHD and was brutalized, abused, and raped by criminally insane students while the white teacher refused to report what I endured to the principal. A very disturbing read.
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It can be a bit too absurdist, but Ellison's commentary on a white man's idea of what an African-American should be is harrowing and timely. Ellison brilliantly subverts the conservatism of Booker T. Washington by noting the limitations of having an identity as an African-American.
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Read for English 102. Very powerful story
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Read for American Literature class!
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Had to read it for college, was decent in my opinion. For a book I was forced to read.
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Oh his death bed, the grandfather talks about how he was disloyal to his own good. Ellison says, “I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction”. This unnerves Ellison for quite some time. So he thinks that his grandfather cursed him in some way, but his grandfather was talking about civil obedience. Although this was recently after slavery was abolished, the south was and still is very prejudice. The grandfather called himself a traitor because being civilly obedient; you had to fake your kindness towards the superior ethnicity. His grandfather was very favored in the community for his allegiance. His grandfather was only wise in that he knew the repercussions of advocacy towards the truth. So he called himself a spy because he observed the proper behavior around the elites. He called himself a traitor because he knew how to act and speak so he would not be mistreated. Yet, he knew the way his kin was still treated. Ellison became aware of this fact when he gave his speech. First of all, even though he was giving a speech, which in today’s society means you are VIP and get special treatment. Ellison was still forced to fight the gauntlet of blindfolded peers. Everyone talked through his speech and disregarded his struggle. His Scholarship is ironic. Obviously, the white men of the town saw that he was a great kid but they still treated him as they would any other black kid. His grandfather said that life was a war. His life constantly tested his limits of how long he could be polite. He never cracked. This is not to say he didn’t end the war, but he figured out how to survive
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Reading Battle Royal definitely captured my mind and took me through everything African Americans went through during the 1960’s. Life for them wasn’t easy since they suffered a lot as shown throughout the story. The protagonist was left as an example to follow what was left from his grandfather. All he kept recalling were his grandfather’s words “I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction.” Many African Americans were humiliated, treated as animals and some were bet while being in the battle. Life was harsh for them since everyone deserves to be treated equally and unfortunately they weren’t. The protagonist itself was beaten and at first didn’t know how to stand up for herself. However, he realized everything his grandfather had said and decided to change his speech from social terms towards equality. While doing his speech, he won the scholarship & cried because he felt accomplished and knew he had made a difference and an impact to everybody.
Conformity and Racism were two important themes and aspect portrayed throughout the story. African Americans haven’t always been treated as they were suppose to be treated and especially during the 1960’s when there existed a lot of discrimination, segregation and stereotyping in the South and Midwestern United States. However, at the end of the story, the protagonist knew that he had made a difference in everyone’s lives. -
Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal depicts the struggles of our African-American narrator who seeks to know why his grandfather considers himself a backstabber to his own nace. The narrator is brought to an assembly to speak infront of a body of upper-class white citizens. However, he is talked into fighting a group of kids before he is allowed to give his speech, which he goes on to perform after he loses in the fight. Ellison appoints his main character with the trait of fearlessness, which is evident in his perserverance to say his speech infront of people who just saw him lose in a fight.
Through reading Ellison's story, I came to the conclusion that the main theme of this story is to represent one's self as an individual in society opposed to letting them control your life for you. Coming from a difference race can affent one's life completely, so what I learned from interpreting this story is that everyone should be treated equally in order to achieve the fairness that our society has been hoping to attain.
