Grammar check and embroidery

ivlrayv
timer Asked: Mar 15th, 2018

Question Description

Mainly revise for grammar mistakes, and sentences that might cause confusions, polish the language

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LI1 Yingyan Li Professor Cudahy ENGL 110 3/10/2018 An invisible man “Invisible” can be explained in many ways. It’s commonly known as things that cannot be seen by others, as well as someone cannot see his true self. In the story “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison, a racist society was revealed through a gathering of Whites who humiliate and hurt black community for fun. Ellision’s fiction focuses on a young boy’s story. In the story, the naive young black boy is considered “an invisible man”, not only because he is no one in the Whites’ eyes due to racism, but also he failed to recognize his identity in the racist American society at that time. The battle match reveals the social inequality, moreover, it lifts the curtain of how the narrator is “visible” and “invisible” at the same time. In “Battle Royal”, White men in the town blindfold a number of black folks to a gathering. Including the narrator, who thought he was invited to give a speech, is actually forced to fight with other young black men in a battle match, then to get their rewards, they have to pick up the coins which turns out to be brass from an electrified circle. “ But now I felt a sudden fit of blind terror. I was unused to darkness.It was as though I had suddenly found myself in a dark room filled with poisonous cottonmouths. I could hear the bleary voices yelling insistently for the battle royal to begin” (p1414). The “White cloths” are used to blindfold the black boys when they are in the battle match. It symbolizes that the black boys cannot distinguish their plight that are being treated cruelly, and they cannot see their tragic fate. In addition, the White’s blindfold makes them numb and can’t see that fighting their own race is self-destruction and self-harm. To the people in the racist American society at that time, not only the black people fail to realize themself, also the Whites. When flattering the Whites, black folks cannot see their ignorance and slavery at all, and when it comes to humiliating and harming the blacks, the whites cannot see their brutal of torturing although the blacks’ slavery is visible to them. In the story, Ellision uses a lot of symbols to reveals the social phenomenon, which the “White cloth” is used to represent how blacks are not able to find their own identities under the pressure, and the whites turn a blind eye to the black people’s existence. Another symbol used to show the struggle for the blacks seeking equality that appears throughout the story is the “speech”. The narrator never forgets his speech during the whole brutal gathering, which indicates his strong will of gaining assurance by the society. Before the battle match begins, the narrator starts to worry. “And besides, I suspected that fighting a battle royal might detract toughness” (p1412). Then they are blindfolded, when all in his mind is only the speech. “The blindfolds were put LI2 on. Yet even then I had been going over my speech. In my mind each word is as bright as flame” (p1414). The naive young black boy comes for the speech. He tries to show everyone his opinion of the society, to be heard by the Whites, so he can be seen, and to change how others perceive him, however, he can never imagine how cruel the reality is. After getting beaten up and electric shock, he finally has a chance to deliver his speech. “The speech seemed a hundred times as long as before, but I could not leave out a single word” (p1419). Although the poor boy finally gives the speech that he has been dreaming to deliver, all he gets is humiliation. No one really pays attention to what he says, they only see him as a crown to make fun of. What the boy has gone through this night represents the tribulation of their race. The black community wants to deliver their “speech” at that time, while they have to endure so much discrimination and suffering when they fight to be treated equally, but end up being ignored and made fun of. The “smoke” in the ballroom is another important symbol in the story. Representing the racial discrimination of the whites, the smoke chokes the narrator invisibly. The boy notices it is foggy with cigar smoke once he gets into the ballroom, which establishes an environment that all the blacks in the middle 20th century are facing racism in their life. When the torment goes further, “Blindfolded, I could no longer control my motions. I had no dignity. I stumbled about like a baby or a drunken man. The smoke had become thicker and which each new blow it seemed to sear and further restrict my lungs” (p1414). As the whites’ violence more arrogant, the smoke gets thicker and the narrator is almost suffocated by it, and it reflects the blacks are like playthings to them. They are helpless, being tortured,struggling and die slowly under the whites’ “smoke”. As the narrator describes his life, “All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive” (p1410). Ralph Ellision uses several symbols in the story “Battle Royal”, to emphasize the plight that the black people was confronting. As analyzed aboved, the “white cloth”, “speech”, and “smoke” were used in the story, all together develop a racist American society. A strong will of being recognized by the society roots deep in his mind, therefore he tries so hard, even though to achieve that he had to bear so much cruel tortments and humiliations. He gets his reward at the end, in a tragic way. The narrator failed to find his identity, no matter in the whites’ world or in his own world, which makes him an invisible man.
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