Symbolism in Ellison's Battle Royal

Ralph Ellison’s short story, “Battle Royal”, is symbolic in many different ways. In one way it is symbolic of the African Americans’ struggle for equality throughout our nation’s history. The various hardships that the narrator must endure, in his quest to deliver his speech, are representative of the many hardships that the blacks went through in their fight for equality. The narrator in Ellison’s short story suffers much. He is considered to …

…just be living the life that the whites envision he should have. This represents what happened in out nation’s history as well. The whites tried to appease our nation’s black population by giving them certain rights but never really letting them be truly equal. Ralph Ellison’s short story, “Battle Royal” is very significant. It is representative of the many struggles and hardships that our nation’s African American population endured throughout history.