Battle Royal By Ralph Ellison

Abstract
        The narrator was cursed by his grandpa and so he always had to play it safe. He is praised by the people of his town for being a good black. As the story goes on the narrator goes to all wealthy white men to tell them a speech. He ends up taking part in a battle royal in which he has to fight the other men blindfolded. He ends up getting to the last round, where he is defeated by another man.

Journal
     This story takes place during the era of black and white segregation. This is the same era that Ralph Ellison lived in while writing his stories. He was the grandson of a slave just like that main character in the story. These are just some of the similarities that are shown between Ralph and the narrator of this story.
      The narrator is living with a curse of his grandfather. When his grandfather was on his deathbed he told him that he'd be cursed for ever and have to carry that burden on his back. All throughout the narrator's life he lives cautiously not wanting the curse to affect him. As a slaves's grandson and a black he had to be of the safe side smiling to all the whites and saying that yesses. This is how all black must act in order to remain safe under white rule.
       The problem of segregation is that the black's were never free. The narrator thought he had it pretty lucky because he was never abused by the white's. He had the opportunity to go and speak to all the wealthy men. He became really nervous because he wanted to be different than every other black, and he wanted to impress the white men. As he goes up to speak the white men don't listen until he mixes around some of his words. The words were social responsibility in which he was suppose to say social equality. Why does this catch the attention of the white men? Is it because the white's think the black's have the social responsibility to do all the labor, while the white have the responsibility of the government. They lack to acknowledge that fact that he states social equality because they don't believe that that's even possible.