Analysis Of The Poem Battle Royal By Ralph Ellison

In the excerpt, â€Å"Battle Royal† by Ralph Ellison explores the defining issue of racism in America by highlighting the use of power white people use to oppress black people. He signifies the start of black people’s oppression through the inclusion of the white man’s role. Ellison expresses how white men exercises their power in many forms like political, class, and racial to continue to make blacks feel inferior. The idea of the white man’s power is exercised in â€Å"The Meaning of a Word† by Gloria Naylor when she argues that the use of â€Å"nigger† as a social term is not internalization racism in America. This paper will compare the cause of white men using their power to continue to make other races feel inferior as told by Ellison’s claim and†¦show more content†¦He asserts his claim to the reader that America was built on the hard work and mistreatment of blacks while white men abused their power and got rewarded fo r their work. Reward in which blacks â€Å"could not see† (Ellison 186). The effect of these beginning stages of oppression for blacks are psychological. As articulated in Naylor’s piece, the term â€Å"nigger† is used to belittle blacks. She writes, â€Å"He snatched his test from me and spit out that word. Had he called me a nymphomaniac or a necrophiliac, I couldn’t have been more puzzled. I didn’t know what nigger was, but I knew that whatever it meant, it was something he shouldn’t have called me† (Naylor 1). Through the personal narration, Naylor invokes a sense of empathy to her experience that is common for many African Americans. The racial bigotry taught to this young boy stings the author. When she states he â€Å"snatched his test from me and spit out that word†, Naylor asserts the haughtiness of that word. The same emotions that blacks have felt for years toward it. that young white boy was taught to use that word to hate and to humiliate and he succeed. By blindfolding the black boys, the white men reassert their dominance. They use money, and slurs to â€Å"keep them in place†. Ellison states, â€Å"But now I felt a sudden fit of blind terror. I was unused to darkness. It was as though I had suddenly found myself in a dark room filled with poisonous cottonmouths. I could