The Royal Race

Most of Battle Royal is concrete. A black boy feels honored and superior to his fellow black classmates, because he is asked to recite a speech at a white men’s smoker, but the white men only want his oration merely as an act in their circus, and force him to watch an erotic dance and take part in their Battle Royal. The narrator takes part in this fight so that he may deliver his speech latter on in the night and further gain the respect of the white men. While this plotline is interesting, the themes of racial superiority and the limitedness of the American dream are enforced by the imagery of the nation’s colors and the presence of smoke during the dancing and fighting scenes.

Representing the American ideals, negative red, white and blue imagery is dispersed throughout the story. The white oppressors are described as being ‘lily-white”, having blue eyes, and red faces. Though Ellison describes the men a “lily white,” suggesting purity, their red faces, due to alcohol consumption and excitement from watching the boys’ struggle, actually mocks their self-righteousness. The erotic dancing female, having blonde hair, blue eye shadow, red lips, and an American flag tattoo, represents a perverse version of lady liberty. Her tattoo is placed on a sensual part of her body, mocking the very ideas it represents. Enchanted by her performance the corrupted men’s inner beast is revived, as they proceed to hunt and toss their meat about the room. Their superiority of this delicate creature prepares the reader for their treatment of the black boys, whose eyes are immediately suffocated by the white bands like those of the American flag. The boys are literally and figuratively blinded by the white race. The red blood and blue light motifs emphasize their blindness to the fact that in the white man’s society the American dream does not pertain to them. Both colors literally cloud the narrator’s vision; through his blindfold the only distinct color the narrator sees is the blue light, while once he is knocked down, red slowly disperses over the band. Consumed by the idea of reciting his speech in front of the only people fit to judge it, the narrator is naive of the white mans’ corruption. They reduce the black boys to their ancestral status of savages. Upon removing the white cloth, the narrator has a slight epiphany, and directs his opponent to fake a loss and offers him the prize. It is the black boys’ first attempt to work as cohesive unit. Up until this point the white men have been able to weaken the boys by plotting them against each other, leading them to believe that they were being looked highly upon for doing the white man’s will. Their failure to compromise is the struggle that they will continue to face as a divided race, as the homogenous American colors are not strong when separated. Ellison mocks America by disrespecting the nation’s colors.

The white cigar smoke is emphasized during the most perverted scenes in the story as a symbol of white superiority. The smoke “clings” to the girl’s seductive body, just as the men’s “beefy fingers sink into her soft flesh.” Though the girl appeared to be unaffected by the smoke, her terrified and disgusted eyes reveal her true animosity towards the white men; therefore, she must have been forced to dance, or she is in desperate need of the money amongst the white man’s world. Both the men and the smoke are omnipresent, stifling her integrity. After being blindfolded, the narrator, also subjecting himself to the white man’s will, feels as though the smoke is a dagger piercing his body. This imagery foreshadows the narrator’s realization of the men’s indirect abuse. With each blow the smoke proportionately cuts off his ability to breath, just as the white men suffocate his race. Even when the narrator realizes that he can vaguely recognize figures, enough to be successful in the fight, the smoke is also visible, distorting his vision. A member of the pack shouts a bet against the narrator, who has to actually ask himself if he should lose the fight in order to submit himself to the white man. Rather than fight against the while man, he fights for him. Amorphous smoke has the ability to spread wherever it pleases, and if enough if present, suffocate its victim, just as the white men have uniformly asserted their superiority.

Ellison uses the American colors to reveal the white man’s corruption, and the smoke to reveal his superiority. The story hints at the narrator’s future ability to see the vivid colors, but his vision remains foggy; though, the fact that he is haunted by the dream and becomes invisible, a step above visibly abiding by the white man’s wishes, gives the reader hope that he will rise above the suppression and fight for, not against, what he believes in. (878)




What does the imagery of the circus represent?

What was the significance of the electric rug and fake gold coins?

How come the boys work against each other? Does it have to do with the cash prize or it is something deeper?

How do you feel about the narrator at the end of the story? Pathos? Resentment?

Contradictions

Often people hide behind their self-proclaimed, religious façades. The ardent church attendees and devout bible readers can also be hypocritical monsters. So wrapped up in the technicalities of religion are they that pure intentions are forgotten. In Revelations by Flannery O’ Connor, Mrs. Turpin is so enthralled in her own definition of righteousness that she is ignorant of her impiety. In her mind people are placed on a ladder to heaven by ascending class order. Her time is spent reviewing this line and struggling with those groups whom she sees misfit. She often speaks on God’s behalf and feels that she this omni knowledge of people. In Mrs. Turpin’s mind Jesus conscientiously rewarded her with being a respectable white woman and by doing so placed her closer to heaven. Turpin is forgetful of Christianity’s recurring theme that those who suffer prosper in heaven. She proclaims that her life’s philosophy is to help all in need, but her helping is for her own satisfaction. Her own religious self-righteousness has clouded even the most simply of Christian morals.

Mrs. Turpin is a bossy, judgmental and ungrateful woman. She is the superior figure in her marriage. Though Claud, her husband, has an ulcer on his leg, when Mrs. Turpin cannot find a seat he simply sighs and begins to rise. Rather than be flattered that he would give up his seat, she demands that he sits down, and has justify to her audience that he has an ulcer. In complete submission Claud rolles up his pant leg and reveals the purple swelling. In this scene Claud’s actions reveal that he is subordinate to Mrs. Turpin. Her next order of business is classifying the people, when she cannot sleep; she is comforted by reviewing the distinct classes and putting herself in line. Seated next to her is the blue-eyed fat girl, next to the girl is a “leathery old woman,” and across the room a “pleasant lady, the mother of the disrespectful child, and after an examination of their shoe selections, their castes defined them. Every aspect of the people was a result of their class.

In the disillusioned mind of Mr. Turpin, being black dirty or ugly is an impurity from God; therefore, as a white homeowner Jesus destined her to be a better person. Even Mrs. Turpin’s hogs are superior to most; they are raised on concrete and washed daily; almost like she is fearful that others will judge her on her on the cleanliness of her animals. After the reader learns about her hog washing, Mary Grace, the fat girl, calls her a hog, alluding to the fact that Mrs. Turpin is symbolically trying to cleanse herself of her impurities. But a hog cannot erase its identity; it may seem superior because of its lack of dirt but inside it remains a naturally dirty animal. Mrs. Turpin pretends to be a friend to the black help, but this falsehood is only for her own benefit. She even defends the race to the trashy lady saying that they are different kinds of black people, but had she believed this statement, she would not have lumped blacks into one category on her caste ladder. When the delivery boy enters the office her fist observation is that he is “colored,” and after a short description of his delivery, she returns to the fact that he is “very black.” Though she objects to the Christian notion that all people are equal, she considers herself holy.
O’Connor reveals Mrs. Turpin’s impiety not only through her actions but symbolically. In the waiting room gospel music is playing creating the illusion that the room is not only a waiting room for the doctor, but also to heaven. Like trying to jam the wrong puzzle piece into a space, Mrs. Turpin does not fit. O’ Connor opens the story with the fact that Mrs.Turpin is too large for the room, and the tension grows when the seat fits her like a corset. Her character is too inflated for heaven. Her name is not revealed until the last quarter of the story; by creating this formal situation, O’ Connor does not want the reader to feel a connections towards her. Even her name, Ruby, has a connotation of both beauty and impiety. Rubies are precious, expensive gems, the type of lady that Mrs. Turpin wants to emulate, but they are also red, which is associated with the devil, and is a representative of her true character.
Mrs. Turpin’s character can be summarized by saying that she is a character of contradictions. It is almost as though she looks at herself through a distorted mirror, for she is truly blind to her ignorance. As a reader her blindness is tough categorize. Because the reader is torn between sympathy and hatred, thorough out the story, her transformation at the end of the story is unexpected but realistic. The light is finally shown on Mrs. Turpin, ironically, in the hogs’ pen, and her foggy reflection is ultimately cleared, seeing herself as a true hypocrite, and vowing to become a true child of God.

Misconceptions

On the onset of Teenage Wasteland, Daisy, mother of Donny, appears to be well qualified for the position of mother, but as the story progresses one by one those qualifications diminish. The story opens with Daisy’s nostalgia to go back to a time when Donny was younger and more innocent. I think every mother has this feeling of wishing to go back to the simpler days, where her child’s departure was not in sight, but Daisy’s longing is different; it implies that she wants her son to revert back to his childhood self, because he was easier to govern. Every aspect of his description has connotations of his transformation from light to dark: his hair was once short and blonde, but now long and dark, those round cheeks, now sharp. As a former fourth grade teacher, Daisy knows how to deal with younger children, her comfort zone, but teenagers are more complex than the simple minds of fourth grades, and Daisy could not make the adjustment. Donny’s deviation from his younger characteristics appears to embarrass Daisy. Upon hearing the principal’s declaration of Donny’s laziness, disruptiveness, and disobedience her own insecurities consume her mind: what if he does not think her an adequate parent, or that she does not care, how must she, an overweight woman, appear? As a mother, it was her duty to decide how to punish and change Donny’s actions; this is the first time the reader sees Daisy fail, though only slightly, as a mother.

Daisy is blind to her failure as a mother; in her mind she followed every rule by enforcing curfew, making her son finish his homework before talking on the phone, or watching TV, but her Waterloo came through not understanding her son. This miscommunication disabled her to discipline her son’s manipulative ways, and aid his internal illness. Donny was a troubled kid, always acting out, and it is not clear if he was trying to get attention or if he was just hurting, but I think one reason for his disobedience was his the absence of his father without whom Donny lacked a male figure to look up to. When the counselor decided that Donny needed a tutor with a psychology background, the parents dutifully obliged, and in steprd Cal, Donny’s sudo-father figure, a middle aged kid who throughout the story is not associated with a single adult, except for his failed marriage. Donny’s parents notice his newfound happiness, but only at the expense of his failing grades and rude behavior. Cal persuades Donny’s parents to disregard their ideas of being a good parent by setting rules, and attributes these rules to Donny’s depression. His methods are absurd and unnatural, and Daisy even comments on the difficulty of following all of these rules. By allowing him to govern her son, she looses all of her authority, in a sense mirroring her relationship with Donny, becoming the child to an unprepared parent; but forgoing her authority was simple and complexity she could not handle.

Donny’s expulsion seems to cause Daisy’s awakening from this dream world of not having to deal with her son’s difficulties, and Cal is dismissed, but Donny was left without an adult to help him. At least Cal was someone to talk to and during those sessions his mental state was briefly lifted. Now, his mother is even farther from understanding his complex nature and put him into a school and watched him become the model student she always wanted but also suffer until he snapped and ran away.

I guess it is easy to blame the mother because the reader feels that the mother should share this bond with her son where she understands all of his incomprehensible emotions, of course, this is not realistic, but reality is often lost in the attempt to over simplify the characters in a piece of literature. (645)