The brought in to fightfor the men

The brought in to fightfor the men

The narrator of Battle Royal, lived his life under the illusion thateverybody had an equal chance in life. He desperately wanted and tried to pleaseeveryone, thinking that if he did he would eventually rise and become somebodygreat. He was a great speaker and his speeches won him great recognition, but hedid not realize that nobody took him seriously. He was trapped in a body ofinferior qualities and would never amount to anything. The setting of BattleRoyal, was recently after slavery had been abolished. A time where blackswere free, but looked upon and treated with less than equality. The narrator waspraised by the whitest of white men in the town, and looked upon as an exampleof desirable conduct.

What he did not understand was that they did not think anymore of him than any other black man, he was just another nigger to them. Themagnificent blonde that paraded around the middle of the boxing ring was morethan just amusement. This was everything that these black men wanted, but wouldnever have. She represented the American dream of power, wealth, and fame. Thenarrator knew he could never have her, but he looked anyway. Had the price oflooking been blindness, I would have looked.

Pg198. The author had devotedhis life to pleasing the white men, so he could speak, to be somebody, but hewould never amount to anything. He was their toy. The Battle Royal, itselfwas a thorough example of the power that the white man had over the blacks. Allten of the boys were made to go through acts of humiliation before and afterthey had fought and made to wear blindfolds during the actual fight.

The boyswere degraded and humiliated throughout the whole event and didnt once thinkthat they were being mistreated. They were scared of the white men and whatmight happen if they did not cooperate. The boys had been brought in to fightfor the men and be nothing more than an amusement. After the fight was over theboys were led to an electrified rug, covered in piles of money, which they weretold was to be their reward.

There appeared to be quite a sum of coins, crumpledbills, and gold pieces, which turned out to be next to nothing considering thegold pieces were actually brass advertising tokens. The boys had been misled,lied to, and physically abused, but never spoke out against the white men once.The white men knew the could do whatever they wanted and they did. A few daysafter the fight the narrator had a dream that he and his grandfather were at thecircus. I dreamed that I was at the circus and that he refused to laugh atthe clowns no matter what they did. Pg. 205.

This dream was an image of whathad happened that night at the Battle Royal. He was one of the white mensitting in the crowd looking at what had been him and the other boys which wererepresented by the clowns. His grandfather was trying to show him what he hadreally looked like that night in the ring. Then he opened his briefcase to readwhat was inside. He opened the envelope stamped with the state seal only toendlessly find envelope after envelope. His grandfather explained to him thatthese envelops represented years of his life.

Finally the last envelopecontained a letter which read, To Whom It May Concern, Keep This Nigger BoyRunning. Pg. 205.

This letter represented what the white man wanted for him.They wanted him to become educated and to eventually lead his people. Theyfigured that they could keep him busy leading his people in circles. To keepthem ever chasing their dreams to which they would never catch up with. Thenarrator had lived his whole life chasing his dreams and continually ignoringthe reality of his situation.

He thought the white men were helping him toachieve his goals and eventually he would get to where he wanted to be. What hedid not realize was that he was doing everything the white man wanted him to.They did not take him seriously and they never would.English Essays