Battle Royal By Ellison Essays (674 words) - Nigger, Profanity

Battle Royal By Ellison The narrator of "Battle Royal," lived his life under the illusion that everybody had an equal chance in life. He desperately wanted and tried to please everyone, thinking that if he did he would eventually rise and become somebody great. He was a great speaker and his speeches won him great recognition, but he did not realize that nobody took him seriously. He was trapped in a body of inferior qualities and would never amount to anything. The setting of "Battle Royal," was recently after slavery had been abolished. A time where blacks were free, but looked upon and treated with less than equality. The narrator was praised by the whitest of white men in the town, and looked upon as an example of desirable conduct. What he did not understand was that they did not think any more of him than any other black man, he was just another nigger to them. The magnificent blonde that paraded around the middle of the boxing ring was more than just amusement. This was everything that these black men wanted, but would never have. She represented the American dream of power, wealth, and fame. The narrator knew he could never have her, but he looked anyway. "Had the price of looking been blindness, I would have looked." Pg198. The author had devoted his life to pleasing the white men, so he could speak, to be somebody, but he would never amount to anything. He was their toy. The "Battle Royal," itself was a thorough example of the power that the white man had over the blacks. All ten of the boys were made to go through acts of humiliation before and after they had fought and made to wear blindfolds during the actual fight. The boys were degraded and humiliated throughout the whole event and didn't once think that they were being mistreated. They were scared of the white men and what might happen if they did not cooperate. The boys had been brought in to fight for the men and be nothing more than an amusement. After the fight was over the boys were led to an electrified rug, covered in piles of money, which they were told was to be their reward. There appeared to be quite a sum of coins, crumpled bills, and gold pieces, which turned out to be next to nothing considering the gold pieces were actually brass advertising tokens. The boys had been misled, lied to, and physically abused, but never spoke out against the white men once. The white men knew the could do whatever they wanted and they did. A few days after the fight the narrator had a dream that he and his grandfather were at the circus. "...I dreamed that I was at the circus and that he refused to laugh at the clowns no matter what they did." Pg. 205. This dream was an image of what had happened that night at the "Battle Royal." He was one of the white men sitting in the crowd looking at what had been him and the other boys which were represented by the clowns. His grandfather was trying to show him what he had really looked like that night in the ring. Then he opened his briefcase to read what was inside. He opened the envelope stamped with the state seal only to endlessly find envelope after envelope. His grandfather explained to him that these envelops represented years of his life. Finally the last envelope contained a letter which read, "To Whom It May Concern, Keep This Nigger Boy Running." Pg. 205. This letter represented what the white man wanted for him. They wanted him to become educated and to eventually lead his people. They figured that they could keep him busy leading his people in circles. To keep them ever chasing their dreams to which they would never catch up with. The narrator had lived his whole life chasing his dreams and continually ignoring the reality of his situation. He thought the white men were helping him to achieve his goals and eventually he would get to where he wanted to be. What he did not realize was that he was doing everything the white man wanted him to. They did not take him seriously and they never would.

Night Essay essays

Night Essay essays Night, Elie weisels harrowing first-person account of the Holocaust demonstrates the murder of his family and his own survival in the hell of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. His account reaches a person at the most elemental level and shows them light and also unforgettable darkness. At the concentration camp, Jews were made to live in inhuman conditions, where there was a lot to endure but less to eat. All prisoners were the victims of the same fate and were made to endure the same mental and physical agony. Night is taught as part of the grade 10 curriculum. Hence, in my opinion, Night should continued to be taught as part of the Grade 10 curriculum because it gives students the historical image of the Nazis brutality in exterminating the Jews in Germany in 1940s, and the importance of love and faith in such inhuman conditions. Firstly, Night is a historical novel and gives a clear image of Nazis brutality in exterminating the Jews. It tells the students about the hatred Germans and particularly Hitler had for Jews. Jews were depopulated by the anger of Hitler, their homes and properties were taken and they were deported from their country. Night gives a vivid image of how the Jews were killed. For example, Jews were imprisoned by the Germans and they were sent to concentration camps, where their lives were extremely difficult and sometimes lead to death. The novel also teaches how inhumane Nazis were to the Jews. For instance, Elie, the author and the main character of the novel says: Humanity? Humanity is not concerned with us. Today anything is allowed. Anything is possible, even these crematories... (p.31). It is even hard to imagine how prisoners were disrobed and distressed. Most of the prisoners died of starvation and were exposed into mass ...