The Role of the Narrator in Ralph Ellisons Battle Royal

The narrator took the negative ways of Negro life and used it to gain positive results, for him, from his white counterparts. The narrator believes that being asked to give speeches, which expressed the humility that Negroes should have, would serve as a stepping stone towards his goal of gaining their praises; much like that of Booker T.

Washington. With respect to his grandfather and to the honor of Mr. Washington, I believe the narrator was right for wanting to use the theories of Booker T. Washington.

In Ralph Ellison’s Battle Royal, the narrator first begins to reflect about the many conversations that took place between him and his grandfather. In the narrator’s reflections, he recalls his grandfather’s statement, 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 burst wide open (p.223). This statement was something that the narrator thought about as he began to grow and understand the Negro roll in society.

Although his grandfather, on his deathbed, uttered this statement, no one dared to repeat it outside of his family circle. But these were words that played around in the narrator’s mind as he grew and gained more experience and insight into what his grandfather actually meant by his statement. Felling guilty and uncomfortable, the narrator finds that his actions, an example of desirable conduct-just as my grandfather had been ; make him worthy of praise by the most lily-white men of the town (p.

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224). This was the narrator’s way of getting what he needed from the white men of the town without stepping out of his place as a Negro man. This, the battle of wits, would be the war he would have to be a traitor in (p223).

Upon graduation, the narrator still honored the belief that he had to use deception as the key to gain the things he wanted. What the narrator wanted most, at the time of his graduation, was to attend college. He new that the only way he was going to get to college was to get a scholarship and those were only given to Negroes who knew their place at all times, and he did. In honor of the narrator’s speech, which expressed that Negroes who wish to continue on progressively show humility, the narrator was invited to give his speech again to the town’s leading white citizens. Negroes showing constant humility were not the values and views the narrator believed in, but words that he needed to say to continue to gain their support and praise. On my graduation day I delivered an oration in which I showed that humility was the secret, indeed, the very essence of progress. (Not that I believed this-how could I, remembering my grandfather?- I only believed that it worked) (p. 224).

Upon reaching the ballroom, where the nights activities would take place, the narrator begins to think about how he, at one time in his life, wished he could be like Booker T. Washington. His thoughts preceding the days of his youth, I believe, was a part of his reasoning behind his determination to always remember his grandfathers last words. The pre-invisible days, stated in the third paragraph of page 224, were the days before he learned to be recognized as a good nigger, in white society and thus gaining respect and receiving the rewards of a college scholarship. The actions of the narrator, in the eyes of the leading towns people, were the actions like that of Booker T. Washington who always gave speeches about the role of Negroes in white society. This was the treachery his grandfather told him of on page 244, 14 lines down.

In the most noted battle of wits, the narrator is forced to participate in the battle royal. He is urged on to fight other Negro men and also forced to participate in fighting others for money and gold coins that are on a carpet filled with electrical volts. I saw the rug covered with coins of all dimension and a few crumpled bills the rug was electrified (p. 229). After all the narrator had gone through, to please all of the town’s leading white citizens, he still felt the desire to give his speech. His desire was not spurred on in an effort to show these men that he believed in all the words he said, but to give the speech knowing that all he said would be a lie to help him get what he desired; a just reward. The treachery takes place when the narrator gets the briefcase and the official scholarship to the Negro college. This is a victory for his dead grandfather to proud of. I stood beneath his photograph with my brief case in hand and smiled triumphantly into his black peasant’s face (p. 232).

The narrator ends his story with the dream he has after his victory. He tells us of a different ending to what his official papers read in his dream, To Whom It May Concern, I intoned. Keep This Nigger-Boy Running (p.233). The narrator explains that his dream was about him doing what his grandfather told him to do and the white mans feeling about the social place for Negroes. The more knowledge he gained the harder it will become for him to have equal standing as a Negro male in white society. This was why he had to play the good nigger to get in the white mans social graces.

This all ties together with respects to the Oklahoma riots. The riots were brought about because of a misunderstanding of a black mans actions towards a white woman. It was said that the black man, Mr. Roland, attacked a white woman in an elevator and then fled the scene. In actuality, Mr. Roland accidentally bumped into her and she reacted by attempting to strike him with her purse. In a reflex reaction, he grabbed her by the arm, impeding her actions against him. This is when she screamed. All that were around, when the elevator opened, assumed he had attacked her.

For many of the white towns people, it was an act of a bad nigger who didn’t respect the actions of the white woman. Much like the narrator who was placed in front of a naked white woman. He would not dare to look at her or touch her in any manner. If the narrator had dared to look at this naked woman, it would have cost him his life. This unstated law of the land was much like the reasons behind the Oklahoma riot. It was to punish the black people because they didn’t remember their place in society, much like the place the narrator was reminded of in Ralph Ellison’s story We mean to do right by you, but you’ve got to know your place at all times (p. 232).

The riot in Tulsa, much like the Battle Royal in Ralph Ellison’s story, has the same underlying theme; in order for a black man to get ahead in the social graces of white people he has to know his place at all times. The narrator wanted to be like Booker T. Washington, in theory, but in practice he would be the soldier his grandfather wanted him to be. The white man in turn could see he was a black man who knew his place and thus deserved some of the small pleasures of white life.