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Battle Royal - College Essays

Battle Royal


"Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the good fight…Live with your head in the Lion's mouth"(174). In , by Ralph Ellison, the protagonist is dealt many expectations. The unnamed narrator is placed in a situation where he instantly must choose between his own dream of college and his grandfather's hope of equality. He remains unnamed throughout the story because he has no sense of self. Contrary to his grandfather's last words, he fights a battle within his own race, living up to the expectations of the white men and thus losing sight of his duty to stand up for his race as a black man.
Ironically, the boy fights a battle not with the white race, but within his own race. ...

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we were all crowded together into the servants' elevator"(175). The boy undergoes a realization that he is, in fact, not a Booker T. Washington as he plans to be in life, but merely a common black man who is in disagreement with his own race. He comes to this realization after being victimized by the white men and forced into battle with men of his own ethnicity.
As a result of the ethnic battle, the boy ultimately lives up to the expectations of the white men. He expects to live with "his head in the Lion's mouth(174)" and undermine the white man with a covert retaliation, but unfortunately he slips his head out of the lion's reach just as the jaws slam shut, forcing him to become a traitor to his own race. The protagonist gives in to the white man by remaining docile to equal rights and actually urging his fellow African-Americans to file into the norms of society by accepting the idea of inequality. After the boy's speech, the white MC says, "Gentlemen, you see that I did ...

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PAPER DETAILS
Added: 9/5/2004 12:58:04 AM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 779
Pages: 3

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