1. Ralph Ellison, “Battle Royal”
I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
- from the Prologue to Invisible Man

2. Ralph Ellison (1913-1994) Born in Oklahoma City
Middle name is Waldo; his parents named him after Emerson, hoping he’d grow up to be a poet
Father worked in construction and as a vendor of ice and coal. He died when Ralph was 3; after this his mother supported herself and her children by working as a domestic servant.

3. Ralph Ellison ( )
With the help of a music scholarship, studied at the Tuskegee Institute from
The Booker T. Washington connection
Dropped out and moved to New York to study sculpture, but his plans soon changed again
Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and the Federal Writer’s Project
Became an editor of The Negro Quarterly
WWII , Merchant Marines

4. “Battle Royal” Taken from the first chapter of Invisible Man
IM published in 1952
National Book Award in 1953.
As you read the story, think of the intersecting issues of race, class, and gender.

5. Conflicted Identity Ambiguity of Grandfather’s message
Speaker’s confusion
Intra-racial tension
In the elevator with the other fighters
Showdown with Tatlock
The dancer
American flag
Speaker identifies with her
The electrified rug
His speech

6. The Narrator’s Speech
Comes from a speech given by Booker T. Washington at the 1895 Atlanta Exposition
Also known as:
The Atlanta Compromise Speech
The “Cast Your Bucket” speech
Urged blacks to learn manual labor and soothed the white community’s fears of black rebellion
Assimilation, cooperation

7. Debate Within the Black Community
Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. DuBois
Booker T. Washington
Assimilation
Manual Labor
Blacks must learn to live within the racist order of the South
W.E.B. DuBois
Criticized Washington for what he viewed as giving in and submitting to the white culture
Blacks must resist the racist order of the South
Which side do you think Ellison supports in “Battle Royal”? How do you know this?

8. As you read the story, consider the ways in which it dramatizes the forces, both external and internal, which work against collective action by black men. How do the white men in the story actively work to discourage collective action by the black men? How do the black men themselves reinforce this effort? How does the speaker's dedication to educating himself relate to this issue? 
And what about black women? The story seems to have no interest in representing female experience. How does this absence inflect your understanding of the story? What function does the white woman who appears at the fight serve? What might she symbolize to the speaker and to the story as a whole?
Consider also the generation gaps in the story. It begins with an anecdote about the speaker's grandfather which emphasizes the distance between their respective generations. How does the rest of the story explore this issue? 

9. 2. What do you think the speaker's grandfather means when he says, "I have been a traitor all my born days" (185)? Why do these words cause so much disruption in the life of the speaker and his parents? Provide at least three quotations to illustrate your discussion. 
3. Consider the blonde woman who dances at the event. Why do you think Ellison included her in the story -- how does she fit in to the story's thematic concerns? Does the speaker seem to sympathize with her? Why or why not? Do they have anything in common? Provide at least three quotations to illustrate your discussion.
4. What do you think is the significance of  the speaker's dream (195-6)? How does it relate to the rest of the story? Provide at least three quotations to illustrate your discussion.