The narrator took the negative ways of Negro life and used it to gain positive results, for him, from his white counterparts. The narrator believes that being asked to give speeches, which expressed the humility that Negroes should have, would serve as a stepping stone towards his goal of gaining their praises; much like that of Booker T. Washington. With respect to his grandfather and to the honor of Mr. Washington, I believe the narrator was right for wanting to use the theories of Booker T. Washington.
             In Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal", the narrator first begins to reflect about the many conversations that took place between him and his grandfather. In the narrator's reflections, he recalls his grandfather's statement, "I want you to overcome'em with yeses, undermine'em with grins, agree'em to death and destruction, let'em swoller you till they vomit or burst wide open" (p.223). This statement was something that the narrator thought about as he began to grow and understand the Negro roll in society. Although his grandfather, on his deathbed, uttered this statement, no one dared to repeat it outside of his family circle. But these were words that played around in the narrator's mind as he grew and gained more experience and insight into what his grandfather actually meant by his statement. Felling "guilty and uncomfortable", the narrator finds that his actions, "an example of desirable conduct-just as my grandfather had been"; make him worthy of "praise by the most lily-white men of the town" (p.224). This was the narrator's way of getting what he needed from the white men of the town without stepping out of his place as a Negro man. This, the battle of wits, would be the "war" he would have to be a "traitor" in (p223).
             Upon graduation, the narrator still honored the belief that he had to use deception as the key to...