"Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison is a chapter out of his reputable book The Invisible Man. Ellison was born in Oklahoma City in the year 1914 and in the course of his life he witnessed the civil rights movement. Ellison was influenced by these events and chooses to speak out through his writings. In this short story the narrator goes through a difficult circumstance; he is striving for his educational goal and terrorized on his way. To go through these horrid events the narrator had to have been strong and brave, but on the other hand foolish.
             The protagonist shows strong qualities throughout the story. In the beginning of the story the narrator show the typical view upon his people, "all my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was" (Ellison 1). The narrator wants something for his life, and was determined to find it. The response he got was an answer that other people decided upon. He knew this had to change; and decided to fight for what he wanted. Later on in the storyline the narrator comes across the chance he need to evolve. He is forced to fight among other African-American people for a chance to recite a speech in front of a panel. This panel is assumed to be made up of rich Caucasian who will decide to grant him a scholarship to a university. Only a strong person would be able to go through such a task; to be made fun of, beaten, laughed upon some more, and finally to make a speech.
             On top of the narrators strength he is also brave. Again the narrator is a brave man to know what he wants to be (different than common) and to fight for it. The man continues on after being humiliated and beaten. "I want to get at that ginger-colored nigger. Tear him limb from limb,' yelled the first voice" (Ellison 5) speculating people yelled obscene remarks which would increase the fear of any other person. Any regular
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