battle royal symbolism

A detailed Summary of battle royal symbolism

In the story "Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison, he uses a white, naked, exotic dancer as a big symbol in the story. Tattooed on the girl that the narrator is directing his attention to is an American Flag. The symbol of the American flag on the naked blonde girl relates to the many themes of the story such as the struggle for equality. To understand how the American flag plays its role in the story you have to look at what it represents. First, the public symbol meanings of the American flag being the American dream, freedom, independence, and equality. To the main character, the narrator, those meanings are important to him. In the story the exotic dancer was what the American flag represented.

It is obvious that the Narrator is attracted to the exotic dancer. "[He wanted] to caress her and destroy her, love her and murder her." The narrator wants what the exotic dancer represents. The Narrator wants to be equal among everybody else, but the white men won't

The white people before the fight throw around the exotic dancer. She has no power of what she does. When this happens it reveals to the reader that equality does not choose anything like how the dancer doesn't choose what happens to her. She has no control of where the people throw her, as the narrator has no control to be equal around white people. Also the white people are abusing the girl. This shows how the white people in the story are abusing and manhandling what equality is and what direction it takes.

let him. The white men in the room force the boys to look at the dancer, while others threaten them when they do. It is clear that at the time that this story was written, black men could never show any kind of attraction towards white women. This was an unwritten, but inexcusable law of society with harsh consequences. How that relates to the story is that the group of black boys are not suppose to be attracted to the exotic dancer as they are not

Some common words found in the essay are:
American Flag, Ralph Ellison, exotic dancer, white people, american flag, exotic dancer represents, dancer represents, attracted exotic, attracted exotic dancer, , equal white people, narrator equal else, narrator equal, equal else, suppose attracted, equal white,

Approximate Word count = 654
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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battle royal symbolism

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