Symbolism of African Oppressio

Ralph Ellison’s Battle Royal depicts how the narrator’s, who is a young, unnamed, African-American, day’s events are representative of the hardships and obstacles African Americans faced. Throughout the story, one can see numerous symbols that fall into a general symbolic meaning of the various obstacles African-Americans faced. The symbols are seen in what the narrator says, sees, and does. The symbols include the way the narrator described himself, the female stripper, the battle royal, and the electrified rug.

The description the narrator gives himself is the main symbol in the story. “I am an invisible man,” (Ellison 231) is what the narrator tells us the reader in the first paragraph of the story. Since, the narrator is a young African-American we already know that narrator is at the bottom of society. The invisibility of the narrator suggests the unwillingness of others to see the individual as a person. Thus, the narrator is invisible because people see in him only what they want to see and not what he really is. Furthermore, the invisibility, in this sense, has a strong sense of racial prejudice. The invisib

Some topics in this essay:
African Americans, African Americans', Battle Royal, battle royal, Bedford/St Martin’s, Michael Meyer, symbol story, electrified rug, SHS English, Ellison Ralph, Ellison’s Battle, ellison’s battle royal, numerous symbols, invisibility narrator, invisibility sense, african boys, female stripper, soon africans, society invisible,