Leaving By Ralph Ellison Analysis

Words: 435
Pages: 2
Open Document
The narrator is one of the brightest youths in his black community and was invited to present his graduation speech to the ‘important’ and wealthy white men of his town in the main ballroom of the leading hotel. The narrator is surrounded by “bankers, lawyers, judges, doctors, fire chiefs, teachers, merchants”, which he admires and aspires to become (Ellison 18). However, the narrator is not the only black youth invited to his gathering and are not all there to give a speech. The white men have gathered the black youth together for an entertaining evening of torture. The young black men “tried to leave” but “were stopped and ordered to get into the [boxing] ring” and were ordered to fight one another (21). The young men are “blindfolded with …show more content…
Contained in the boxing ring, the narrator is only concerned with if him being in the ring would “go against [his] speech” that he would give to the men after the fight (25). The narrator is narrow-minded and does not realize that he is being controlled. The narrator is not only contained by the ‘gentlemen’, but in his own mind. The narrator naively believes that his speech will be something the men will appreciate, but he will never be seen as an equal to them. When the narrator accidentally says social “equality” instead of “responsibility” he is quickly corrected by a “small dry mustached man in the front row” who threatens the narrator in order to make sure that stating “‘equality’ was a mistake” (31). After his speech, the narrator is given a briefcase by the superintendent and inside is a “scholarship to the state college for Negroes” (32). The narrator is “so moved that [he] could hardly express [his] thanks” and is blind to the fact that he was essentially put in his place by the white community. Instead of receiving a scholarship to a college with whites, he is being sent to the “state college for
Show More

Related Documents: Leaving By Ralph Ellison Analysis

Invisible Man Research Paper

In his book, Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison presents the idea of racism in America as a soul-searching process that emcopasses all the baffling experiences the Black Man has to endure. In a story that powerfully emcopasses the hardships and tensions of the road to self-discovery, the narrator…

Words 1139 - Pages 5

Great Gatsby Review

Wilson’s husband. He owns a car garage in the Valley of Ashes. He finds out about his wife’s affair the same night as her death. This drives him to go kill Gatsby and then himself. 5) Themes: Hope Love Trust Dissatisfaction Wealth 6) Analysis: A major symbol in the novel is the green light at…

Words 9628 - Pages 39

Essay about Black People and Conditions Decoding Essentialism

Decoding Essentialism: Cultural Authenticity and the Black Bourgeoisie in Nella Larsen's Passing Author(s): Candice M. Jenkins Source: MELUS, Vol. 30, No. 3, Personal and Political (Fall, 2005), pp. 129-154 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30029776 Accessed: 01-08-2015 15:35 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions…

Words 9559 - Pages 39