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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page essay that compares and contrasts Ellison's "Battle Royal" and Toni Cade Bambara's story "The Lesson." In these narratives, young African Americans receive a complicated lesson in American culture, lessons that will make the protagonists evaluate who they are and the position that they occupy in the society at large, and – most of all – whether or not they will accept this position as it is given. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khelbam.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
the protagonists evaluate who they are and the position that they occupy in the society at large, and - most of all - whether or not they will accept this
position as it is given. In both cases, although the stories are very different, the reader knows that protagonist is irrevocably changed because of the "lessons" learned. Ellisons
short story is autobiographical and set in the 1950s, a time when black people either stayed within restrictive stereotypical behavior or they were subject to the vigilante violence of the
Klan. Ellison begins his narrative by relating the dying words of his grandfather, a man who has "gotten" along with whites his entire life. Ellisons grandfather confesses that he has
"been a traitor" all of his life and he t ells Ellisons father to "overcome em with yesses, undermine em with grins, agree em to death and destruction" (2319).
The entire family is somewhat perplexed by this deathbed change in attitude, and this is particularly true of young Ellison who does not know what to make of it at
all. Ellison has been taught his whole life to acquiesce and accommodate the extravagant demands of Southern whites, so his grandfathers words seem inexplicable to him. However, events in his
life service to start Ellison on the path to understanding. Ellison describes how the graduation speech that he gives at his high school commencement draws the attention of the
white community and gets him an invitation to deliver the speech at a gathering of the towns leading white citizens. On arriving at the meeting, Ellison discovers that some
of his schoolmates will be involved in what is called the "battle royal," which is slated as part of the entertainment, and he is told that since he is there
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