respect by giving his speech it was not nearly enough. The whites gave him his briefcase and congratulated him and that was it. The dream shows that they were just casting the narrator off, not really giving him anything valid at all. They said “Nice job,” but this really isn’t much at all. The white men still felt and air of superiority, sending the narrator off to busy himself with tasks that they felt were relevant. He felt good about all of this at the time, but he will just be living the life that the whites envision he should have. This represents what happened in out nation’s history as well. The whites tried to appease our nation’s black population by giving them certain rights but never really letting them be truly equal. Ralph Ellison’s short story, “Battle Royal” is very significant. It is representative of the many struggles and hardships that our nation’s African American population endured throughout history. ...
