racism in "Batlle Royal" by ralph ellison
... a white woman was not allowed. When this rule was broken, the Afro-American man was lynched. In spite of this law the boys saw the woman and were terrified for their lives "Some were still crying and in hysteria" demonstrates their fillings. The following event of humiliation happened during the battle, in which the boys fought each other blindfolded. Furthermore, after the battle was over the boys were made to pick up fake money from an electrified carpet. In this event, the white people humiliated the boys by making them behave as animals. The irony here is that the ones who acted as animals were the white people which screamed, cursed and behaved with ignorance towards the Afro-American boys' feelings. The last event of humiliation was against the narrator himself. Finally, after the strip dancer's show and after the battle, the narrator was allowed to deliver his speech. The narrator was wounded and tired and while trying to talk. Some of the white men interrupted him and some ignored. However, they did not forget to remind him his low place in the society "But you've got your place at all times". Then, when he finished his speech one of the white men decided to give him a scholarship with which "He'll lead his people in the proper paths". By this sentence the white man meant that the boy must lead the Afro-Americans to keep serving the whites while remembering their place in society. Another point which Ellison presents in this story is the mental struggle between the black and the white worlds the narrator goes through. He does not belong to the white world because he is Afro-American and does not belong to the Afro American world, because his skin is lighter and he is smarter. This struggle helped him understand that he is an invisible man. He is not seen as an individual by both of these worlds. The narrator's struggle began with his grandfather's last words: "' Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up a good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I gave up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. 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 bust wide open. Learn it to the youngsters". The meaning of grandfather's words is that his family must join the whole Afro-American society for a fight for social equality. The Afro-American community must live dangerously by appeasing the whites on the outside appearance and fight them a mental fight. They must not agree with humiliation and racism, but fight in order to stop it. The narrators' parents were afraid that grandfather's statement might harm him and told the narrator to forget about it, but he never did, "And whenever things went well for me I remembered my grandfather and felt guilty and uncomfortable". Unfortunately, the narrator understood the meaning of this statement only after graduating and throughout the story acted with appeasement by watching the strip dance, fighting in the battle, delivering his speech and going to the collage they had sent him to. The day the narrator won the scholarship he had a dream, "I dreamt I was at a circus with him and that he refused to laugh at the clowns no matter what they did. Then later he told me to open my brief case and read what was inside and I did, fin...