In “Battle Royal,” the narrator is concerned with the question of his identity, in how he relates both to himself and to others. He speaks of having been ashamed of how ashamed he felt to be himself. He admits that he spent most of his young years believing that his own “humility was the secret, the essence of progress.” So, when he saw how the white people were treating the fighters, it came as a...
In “Battle Royal,” the narrator is concerned with the question of his identity, in how he relates both to himself and to others. He speaks of having been ashamed of how ashamed he felt to be himself. He admits that he spent most of his young years believing that his own “humility was the secret, the essence of progress.” So, when he saw how the white people were treating the fighters, it came as a bit of a shock to him. He came to the realization that he was only treated with respect because he had stayed out of the way, so to speak; in essence, he had made himself acceptable for the sake of the white people around him.
Eventually, through the actions of the people in the hotel on the night of the battle, he saw that he would always be considered “different” to them, an outsider who is allowed to exist but never to be one of them. In this room, the men came to consume people for sport, whether it was the black men fighting one another or the white woman with the American flag tattooed on her body. When the narrator saw her, he desired her because she seemed perfect to him, yet at the same time, he also felt that he wanted to “murder her.”
Everything about her is typical of the American ideal of beauty. She is described as having “pearly” beads of sweat, fine skin, yellow hair, firm breasts, and pink nipples. It is no accident that she has a small American flag tattooed on her belly; for the narrator it symbolizes something perfect—something very desirable yet unattainable for him. It is interesting that the men in the room yelled at the boys for looking at her but also for not looking at her. It symbolizes the catch-22 of their situation; they’ll never be able to please the people in power, because they can never change who they are. They are “damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.”
The boys begin to sense that they are at the mercy of the men in the room and are transformed in terror. They are afraid that they will be punished for looking at her and that their erections will betray their desire, because they know deep down that she belongs to the men in the room. They begin to faint, to try to escape. The woman also wants to escape. The narrator notices the terror in her eyes as the men begin to grab at her. Together, they are the playthings of these men in power and can do nothing to stop it.
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