Prejudice in Ellison's "Battle Royal" and O'Connor's "Revelation"

Introduction

Prejudice is a central theme in both Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal" and Flannery O'Connor's "Revelation." This essay examines the prejudices of key characters in both stories. One protagonist faces blind, hateful prejudice in "Battle Royal," while the other perpetrates it in "Revelation." Prejudice is ugly, and each story presents it as horribly as possible to drive that message home to the reader.

Racial Prejudice in Ellison's 'Battle Royal'

"Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison is the first chapter of his legendary novel Invisible Man. This prologue introduces the protagonist and graphically illustrates the prejudices Black people faced — and still face — in the South after the Civil War. As the narrator declares early in the story: "I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed" (Ellison).

The main character is a young Black man who undergoes violent hazing in order to win a scholarship to a Black university. He must fight other boys blindfolded in a ring, and then the drunken "upstanding men of the community" offer the boys their reward — useless golden tokens spread across an electrified rug. "A hot, violent force tore through my body, shaking me like a wet rat. The rug was electrified. The hair bristled up on my head as I shook myself free" (Ellison). Not only is the scene humiliating, it represents stark hatred and prejudice disguised as philanthropy.

Ellison's graphic portrayal of prejudice and cruelty is deeply unsettling. While a reader might intellectually know that such things occurred in the South, it is difficult to fully picture them — and even more difficult to absorb the boys' terror. They were treated worse than animals, as though they had no feelings whatsoever. By opening his novel with this vivid depiction, Ellison sets the stage for his character's transformation and, with some luck, for the transformation of whatever prejudices the reader may carry. Recognizing evil for what it is can be the beginning of change, and Ellison is clearly hoping the reader will begin that process.

The Role of Submission and Historical Context

The protagonist submits to the torture of the white men because he has been conditioned to do so — taught, even by respected figures such as Booker T. Washington, to defer to white authority. W.E.B. Du Bois observed that "Mr. Washington represents in Negro thought the old attitude of adjustment and submission" (Du Bois). The narrator himself draws the parallel explicitly at the story's outset:

"And besides, I suspected that fighting a battle royal might detract from the dignity of my speech. In those pre-invisible days I visualized myself as a potential Booker T. Washington" (Ellison).

This identification with Washington places the young man's compliance within a long and painful historical tradition, making his suffering all the more poignant. Ellison uses the protagonist's naivety and his inherited model of submission to expose how deeply prejudice had been internalized — not only by white oppressors, but, tragically, by some of its victims as well.

Prejudice Embodied in O'Connor's 'Revelation'

O'Connor's "Revelation" argues against prejudice just as forcefully as "Battle Royal," but through an entirely different technique. The protagonist, Ruby Turpin, is the very embodiment of hate and prejudice. She has every race neatly compartmentalized in her self-described "Christian" mind and believes her family is superior to all others — even though they raise pigs and smell just like them. "Usually by the time she had fallen asleep all the classes of people were moiling and roiling around in her head, and she would dream they were all crammed in together in a box car, being ridden off to be put in a gas oven" (O'Connor).

When another character can no longer endure Turpin's bigotry, she attacks her and declares, "Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog" (O'Connor). O'Connor uses this confrontation to introduce a character who simultaneously fascinates and repels the reader, ensuring the story's moral cannot be missed. As O'Connor herself wrote of the fiction writer's task, he "will be interested in characters who are forced out to meet evil and grace and who act on a trust beyond themselves — whether they know very clearly what it is they act upon or not."

Turpin appears to experience a revelation at the story's end, and the reader is left hoping she has recognized her errors and opened her heart. O'Connor never resolves the question definitively, leaving the outcome to the reader's imagination. This ambiguity is itself a kind of plea — an invitation for readers to look into their own hearts and examine what prejudices may be hiding there.

Conclusion

Both authors are completely successful in conveying the evilness of prejudice. Their characters carry the message effectively and explicitly. Ellison's protagonist is sympathetic and believable — a young man still naive about the ways of the world. O'Connor's protagonist is exactly the opposite: unsympathetic and entirely convinced of her own worldliness. Both techniques work brilliantly to draw readers into the story, making them want something to happen — some force to shake these characters up and change their beliefs.

The writing of both Ellison and O'Connor creates another world, one in which great things might yet take place. That is the mark of truly great writing: the ability to create another time and place and carry the reader away from the present. These two authors are masters of creating alternate spaces and allowing readers to crawl inside and see the world through a different pair of eyes.

References

Du Bois, W.E.B. "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others."

Ellison, Ralph. "Battle Royal." Invisible Man.

O'Connor, Flannery. "Revelation."

Washington, Booker T. "Atlanta Exposition Address."

"Some Aspect of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction."