Analysis of Battle Royal – 1

A White Compromise In the short story, difference of opinion Royal, Ralph Ellison unc overs a male childs fight to maintain his arrogance in a world of racial injustice. The first person register portrays a naive view of the boys values of what he believes is important in life that is only questioned by his grandpas firm conviction of high-handedness. On page 39, starting with paragraph 99, the text edition depicts the differences betwixt the two segregated worlds of black and washcloth. The text elucidates the boys image to the wishes of ashen man.His acceptance of the scholarship symbolizes his acceptance of separation between the two societies as it was a scholarship to the state college for Negroes. Although the boy realizes that whites and blacks argon restricted to societal confines that can never merge and never become equal, the boy fails to see the force exercised by the whites that lock him into this box. When he prioritizes materialistic wealth, smelling the fr esh leather of the brief case over his possess dignity, he resigns himself to the desires of fraternity in that he blinds himself with affluence and indeed becomes incapable of realizing his own visions.This is further strengthened by the boys quote I felt an importance that I had never conceive of because it implies that he no longer needs his dignity in sanctify to achieve a feeling of success. It provides him with self-respect and happiness that pr heretoforet him from speculative the advantages of alineity. Stripped from his disdain and naively reaching for wealth he contributes to his own confinement as he goes to expect college in order to establish the destiny of his people and thus fulfills the plans of whites.While the boy puts his destiny in the hold of white society, he conforms to the rules of white control. Despite the boys conformity to white rule, he continues to get by in discovering his dignity. The repetition of the word crinkle serves as an important symbol for the boys dignity it signifies the pride he has in his own race and binds him to his people. However, the boy remains stupid of this tie and his rope of melodic phrasey saliva only forms a lick like an undiscovered continent.This imagery represents the possibility of discovering his own dignity and a new world in which he is free to shape his own destiny. Yet the boys blindness leads him to wipe the blood quickly away as it had drooled upon the leather of his brief case, and smeared the desired promises of the white men. The juxtaposition of the line I was overjoyed I did not even mind when I discovered that the gold pieces I had scrambled for were government firing tokens advertising a certain make of automobile strengthens the estimate of the boys blind struggle for dignity.It connotes that the scholarship to the state college for Negroes he had received is just as fake as the brass pocket tokens, thus symbolizing his reach for a false dignity. The boys dream in th e following paragraph continues to enhance his internal struggle to find dignity by contrasting his character to that of the grandpa. Through the context of use of a circus, the narrator suggests that the boy is merely a clown and amenable to any orders that he is given, while the grandpa, who refused to laugh at the clowns no topic what they did, sticks to the dignity of his race.The juxtaposition of this sentence also shows that the grandpa is not humored by the naivete of the boy instead he is rather disappointed as the boy is unable to see that he serves as entertainment to society. contrary his wizened grandfather, the boy idealistic every last(predicate)y believes any promise given to him, another and another, forever until his dignity is consumed by the will of white men. The boy is so in use(p) in reaching these promises that he would fall of weariness before he could realize that the further he reached, the more distant he was from discovering his dignity.While socie ty wants to Keep This Nigger-Boy Running by undermining his dignity with the false glamour of a scholarship, the boy realizes that the whites only give him what he thinks he wants means to put on racial equality as a return for complacency. However, what he in truth desires is arise free from being oppressed and gain equal precondition through demonstrating that his intellect and abilities are equivalent to that of the whites.Because at that time he had no insight into its meaning, he had to compromise between what society could offer him and his dignity. Nonetheless, the auctorial intrusion demonstrates that the narrator gained extensive perspective on his former naivete when telling his story thus the reader can infer that the boy no longer sees any value in the conformation to white society. The trade-off between his dignity and false glamour is similar to the cryptograph sum theory in that it takes power from one entity and puts it in the custody of another.Every time the boy conforms to the wishes of white society he gives up some of his dignity, similarly when he strives to find his dignity he gives up his willingness to conform to ways of the white men. In the end, his realization depicts him choosing his dignity above all as illustrated by the last line First I had to attend college. Therefore, the boys struggle to discover his dignity is resolved through his gain of power that allows him to shape his own destiny and simultaneously break free of white oppression.