Ralph Ellison and War

Battle Royal In Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal" the narrator states that "all my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was" (442). The narrator admits that he accepted their answers even though he knew they were not logical -- and this compulsion to bow down to or to submit to an external force in a setting that is wholly antagonistic to him is the major theme that runs through the story.

Indeed, the Battle Royal in which the young black man is humiliated by being forced to box in a ring is a setting that perfectly represents his internal and external struggles. He is obliges to pleasure the white elites and is compelled to deliver a speech in which he states that the role of the black is to submit and be deferential to whites -- a speech for which he is awarded "entry" into their society -- a setting he is never really supposed to be at home in.

This paper will show how Ellison's short story is, as Janice Trekker notes, a representation of the "war" (169) that blacks must face both internally and externally in the setting of white society, and how this setting controls the internal and external life of the young man. Because of his life being set in the world of an elite white society, the internal war that is waged in the narrator is one of intellectual growth -- a battle between truth and falsehood. It is also a war for identity.

The narrator states that he is "looking" for something -- though he does not know what (Ellison 442). This sense of looking, however, is reminiscent of the journey motif that runs through much of literature -- a motif used to convey or express a sense of exploration, of a character who is searching for knowledge. The knowledge that the narrator of "Battle Royal" is seeking is as of yet unknown, but he is restless and is not content to sit in ignorance. Thus, he asks for the opinion of others.

He is polite and accommodating -- but sometimes this accommodation comes at the expense of his own sense of self, self-worth, and reason. The answers he receives from others on how to think and what to do are irreconcilable and contradictory. They do not actually provide solutions to the problems the narrator seeks to resolve. Thus, the internal war for truth that he wages is frustrated and lost the more that he seeks to reconcile what he is receiving with what he knows is lacking within himself.

He even echoes the words of his grandfather as though they are his own: "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" (Ellison 442).

The grandfather is of course referring to the South and the post-Civil War era which saw blacks taken advantage of by carpetbaggers and scalawags looking to exploit the unfortunate position of the newly freed but still marginalized black community. By giving up his gun in the Reconstruction, the grandfather recognizes that he has given up his right to bear arms, his right to sovereignty, his right to self-defense, to self-assertion, to self-empowerment. Thus, he views himself as a traitor to himself and to his own people.

This story is told by the narrator who seems to be haunted by it as though it were his own story, as though it were passed down into his life, into the internal struggle inside his own mind. In his own mind, the narrator is also at war with what it means to be black -- what it means to have an identity. As his life is lived in a hostile setting, this question is difficult to answer.

Is he like his grandfather -- a traitor to the black culture, the black people, the black identity? Is he nothing more than still a deferential slave to exploitative white elites who never really believed in equality and never really wanted it? This question of identity plagues the narrator. He remembers his grandfather's words of advice on his deathbed: "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 swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open" (Ellison 442). This advice is exactly what the narrator does, as he states, "I was praised by the most lily-white men in town" (Ellison 443). The narrator is not happy with himself though: "I felt a guilt that in some way I was doing something against the wishes of the white folks" (Ellison 443).

He is conflicted: he does not know if he is living for himself or for them -- if he is his own man, or if he is theirs. He does not even know whom he wants to serve -- himself or them. In feigning smiles and being agreeable one can become amenable to a life that was never conceived, a part that was never planned. One can become the servant even though one was only intending to act the part.

This is the problem the narrator faces: he does not know whether he is real and authentic, or fake and deceptive -- like Iago. The internal struggles are nothing compared to the external struggles -- which are violent and humiliating. The setting for the boxing fights -- a crowd of well-dressed whites surrounding the fighting black boys -- is one of existential humiliation.

The external struggles, represented by the boxing match that the narrator is obliged to fight in order to appease those he serves, indicate that the war is not just in his own mind but also in society and running through the environment like an electric charge just waiting to leap out into blows. Unfortunately, the blows are not directed at the oppressors but instead at one's self.

The narrator is forced to box and then -- to make it even more humiliating -- to essentially beg for the white elite's approval by extolling their honor, dignity, wisdom and leadership -- none of which is true. His reward is a scholarship. The external beatings that he gives and receives in the ring are then transferred inward, and he dreams of a communication with his grandfather in which he is given a message -- a message that reflects on his life and current situation: "Keep this Nigger-Boy running" (Ellison 456).

The message hits home like a ton of bricks: finally the truth has been revealed. The narrator is never supposed to know the answer, the reason why, the meaning of the search, the answers that he seeks: he is never supposed to arrive at a sense of identity, at a sense of self-worth.

The community of white elites in which he lives has endeavored to oppress him and keep him subservient for all times -- to keep him dizzy with confusion and in contempt: He is to be kept "running" for his whole life. The external war matches the internal war at last: the reality is that for him there is no reprieve. When grandfather gave up the gun, the war was essentially lost. The battle is a more spectacle, an illusion -- theater for entertainment.

The narrator's life is like that of a.