A Horrible Battle

Basil Latif
AP-1
710

“Battle Royal” is a story from the ‘50’s that takes the reader back in time. The setting of the story forces the reader to contemplate the implications of living at that time–– specifically race relations. The story depicts Southern racism in a peculiar manner: an ominous speech by the grandfather at the start, a strange congregation of elites at a brawl in the middle, and the grant of a scholarship to a black teen at the end. Ultimately, the story is able to expose the hypocrisy and brutishness of the whites at the time.

The story’s depiction of the battle alone does enough to cement the impression of extreme racism and moral degradation present at the time. At the start of the battle, the narrator provides a telling description, “I was shocked to see some of the most important men of the town quite tipsy. There were all there––bankers, lawyers, judges, doctors, fire chiefs, teachers, merchants. Even one of the more fashionable pastors” (¶6). The consumption of alcohol by some prominent, respectable professions, most importantly the pastor, seems to be problematic. Specifically, if the pastor of a town is engaging in the same lowly behavior as the non-clergy, there seems to be an even greater problem. The situation gets worse. The reader then learns of the presence of a naked blond dancing for the men. The aforementioned analysis applies equally here, except, perhaps, to a greater degree. Being drunk is borderline irresponsible but watching a naked, young woman dance could be considered morally irreprehensible. The reader is provided with a description of a man here, “I noticed a merchant who followed her hungrily, his lips loose and drooling” (¶9). There is little that needs to be said about this; however, it is interesting that all of this transpires under the watchful eye of a pastor! Of course, what follows is only worse. The men excitedly watch the boys fight each other. The commentary here is priceless, “The men kept yelling, ‘Slug him, black boy! Knock his guts out!’ ‘Uppercut him! Kill him! Kill that big boy!’” (¶23-4). Finally, the boys are ‘rewarded’ by having the opportunity to battle over gold coins spread out over the floor. Later, the reader discovers the truth, “ I was overjoyed; I did not even mind when I discovered the gold pieces I had scrambled for were brass pocket tokens advertising a certain make of automobile” (¶103). The white men are cruel enough to deceive the boys to think that they are being rewarded for their blood with money that is ultimately fake. The end of the evening follows a similar pattern.

The scholarship given to the narrator should be considered an empty victory. The manner in which the protagonist is treated betrays the whites’ true intentions. Before his speech, the narrator is in awful condition, “I was limp as a dish rag. My back felt as though it had been beaten with wires” (¶59). Surely, the correct manner to treat an honored speaker, even then, is not to have him fight to the death before his speech. However, this is exactly what happens. Then, as soon as the exhausted narrator starts speaking, the crowd shouts “louder.” As the speech progresses, the protagonist has a little trouble. Then: “the room filled with the uproar of laughter until, no doubt, distracted by having to gulp down my blood, I made a mistake and yelled a phrase I had often seen denounced in newspaper editorials, heard debated in private” (¶79). The negative reaction to the word “equality” shows the true feelings of the men. They do not care about this gifted negro boy. His scholarship should be viewed with contempt. The scholarship does not seem to stem from an appreciation of his skin color, rather an acknowledgment of it. After all, it is only a scholarship to a negro college.

Although the South may not have actually been this way, Ellison sure seems to encourage his reader to hold that opinion in this story. The value of reading a story from a previous time is apparent after reading “Battle Royal.” Now, the reader can appreciate the progress that has been made to break down racism “brick by brick, stone by stone.”

Cathedral of Revelation

“Cathedral” by Raymond James Carver is a story about overcoming prejudice. In the beginning, the narrator is suspicious of his wife’s friendship with Robert, this blind man from her past. His skepticism may partially be a product of jealousy, but it’s also because of his ignorance of blind people. As the story progresses, he changes from an insensitive jerk, with no hope for redemption, to someone who starts to figure out what blindness really is. The narrator is able to overcome his ideas about the blind through the time he spends with Robert.

The narrator has many preconceived notions about the blind. First, he has some enmity towards the concept of a blind man married to a woman. He makes statements like, “And then I found myself thinking what a pitiful life this woman must have led. Imagine a woman who could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one” (¶15). To the narrator this is a travesty of the highest order. Next, he demonstrates his dislike for the blind quite bluntly when he says, “And his being blind bothered me…A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to”(¶ 1). The narrator is clearly not in any way, shape, or form ready to accept this kind of different person.

However, the narrator overcomes his bias by admiring the Robert’s handling of his blindness. First, Robert breaks down stereotypes that the narrator has about blind people’s abilities. The narrator is confident that the blind do not smoke. The narrator explains his why he thinks the blind do not smoke, and then he remarks, “But this blind man smoked his cigarette down to the nubbin and then lit another one. This blind man filled his ashtray and my wife emptied it” (¶42). The repudiation of this stereotype sets the stage for further appreciation. Next, he is truly impressed by the way the blind man is able to eat. He respects how Robert eats when he says, “The blind man had right away located his foods, he knew just where everything was on his plate. I watched with admiration as he used his knife and fork on the meat” (¶45). This is the one of the first things the narrator sees Robert do, and he is impressed. Also, it is the first positive comment that the narrator makes about Robert.

The narrator is able to overcome his last vestiges of intolerance by spending time with Robert. First, the two men share drinks together. They both indicate that they have a preference scotch and then end up drinking it. Then, the men smoke together. Here, the men spend time together, and Robert shows kindness for the first time to the blind man, when he asks if the blind man is sleepy etc. This leads to the ultimate bonding experience that the two men share. They watch the show together about cathedrals. Then, finally, they get the idea to draw one together. Not only do the two men bond through this experience, but this is the first time in the entire story that the narrator truly begins to grasp what it is like to be blind. It would be hard to imagine that the narrator would have the same feelings for the blind as he did at the beginning of the story after this experience.

Raymond Carver seems to be demonstrating the power of just getting to know people that are different from you in this story. Prejudice against different people is unwarranted without actually getting to know them. When we spend time with people we are able to realize the quality and value of people whom we may be doubtful about.
(620)

Wasted Teenager

“Teenage Wasteland” is at its core a story about guardianship. At the beginning of the story Daisy, Donny’s mom, is his guardian, however, this role suddenly is given to Cal during the middle of the story. In the end, neither Daisy nor Cal is able to resolve Donny’s issues. The story shows us that, in the end, how some people are managed or treated can be completely irrelevant.

Daisy seems to be behaving as a responsible parent. When she is told to take a more active role in Donny’s schoolwork, she seems to oblige, “From early October through November, at Mr. Lanham’s suggestion, Daisy checked Donny’s assignments every day. She sat next to him as he worked, trying to be encouraging…” (¶4). She is, in fact, solely focused on Donny’s success to the point of slightly neglecting her other child for the sake of Donny. Later, as she is told this approach is actually causing the problems it is trying to fix, Daisy takes yet another place in her child’s life. Per Cal’s recommendation, she withdraws almost completely from Donny’s life and gives him the freedom that Cal says Donny is crying out for. Immediately following this withdrawal Donny reaches rock bottom again; Daisy is informed that Donny is failing History. Even when Daisy was in charge of Donny’s schoolwork she only managed to raise his scores by one grade letter.

Cal, on the other hand, treats Donny like a pal. It becomes evident that the tutoring sessions are a little more than meets the eye, “It was Cal this, Cal that, Cal says that, Cal and I did that. Cal lent Donny an album by the Who. He took Donny and two other pupils to a rock concert. In March, when Donny began to talk endlessly on the phone with a girl named Miriam, Cal even let Miriam come to one of the tutoring sessions. Daisy was touched that Cal would grow so involved in Donny’s life, but she was also a little hurt, because she had offered to have Miriam to dinner and Donny had refused. Now he asked them to drive her to Cal’s house without a qualm” (¶55). At this point, it is clear that Donny marches to Cal and not Daisy’s drum. However, Cal’s lax policies lead to Donny demise. Shortly thereafter Donny is expelled from this school and then runs away.

Donny’s problems do not seem to be very major. Donny is described as, “He was merely going through a difficult period in his life. He required some academic help and a better sense of self-worth” (¶10). Treating this problem is the intention of both Daisy and Cal, but neither can ultimately do anything to resolve it. We are told that Daisy had similar issues as a youth, yet she ends up leading a pretty normal life with a husband and two kids. It seems Donny is just a different breed.

In the end, we learn that some kids are just incorrigible. The two vastly different approaches of the two adults in the story both yield negligible results. Anne Tyler seems to be making a point of individuality in this story. Some persons can never be happy under the control of anyone, whether parent or tutor/friend.

Interpreting Maladies

Interpreting Maladies

“Interpreter of Maladies” is a story about two cultures meeting in a taxi ride. Although all of the characters in the story trace their roots to India, the husband and wife were born and raised in America. On the other hand, Mr. Kasapi, our taxi driver extraordinaire, is a direct product of India. The husband and wife should be viewed form an Indian perspective also because of the role their parents played and the exposure to Indian customs in their upbringing. All of the adults in the story are involved in unsuccessful marriages. Ultimately, the characters’ Indian heritage and culture leads to the demise of their marriages.

In the case of Mr. and Mrs. Das, cultural motives were the cause of their union. As Mrs. Das shrewdly recaps, “Our parents were best friends who lived in the same town. My entire life I saw him every weekend, either at our house or theirs. We were sent upstairs to play together while our parents joked about our marriages. Imagine” (¶140)! As we discover, the two were engaged as early as high school and then went on to the same college. This manner of engagement is certainly not typical of mainstream America, and therefore can be attributed to their Indian culture. However, there is a further impact to their young marriage; it led to early childbearing. The arrival of children led Mrs. Das to sequester herself from her community. She describes her own isolation when she says, “Always tired, she declined invitations from her one or two college girlfriends, so have lunch or shop in Manhattan. Eventually the friends stopped calling her, so that she was left at home all day with the baby, surrounded by toys that made her trip” (¶143). Although it is not explicitly mentioned in the text, the reader can infer that this frustration was the reason “Bobby was conceived in the afternoon.” She had been unhappily married for quite some time now all because of a marriage that happened when she was too young.

Mr. Kasapi’s unhappiness is also because of his cultural background. First, cultural taboos play a detrimental role in Mr. Kasapi’s relationship with his spouse. Mr. Kasapi complains about never having seen his own wife completely naked. It can be inferred that culture accounts for this peculiarity when the narrator says, “He had, of course, seen plenty of bare limbs before, belonging to the American and European ladies who took his tours” (¶ 99). Since Mr. Kapasi has been exposed to other cultures as a result of being a tour guide, he is able to apply certain norms to his own marriage. The quote leads us to believe that Western women are more likely to show their “bare limbs,” whereas Indian women are less likely to do so. Next, a conscientious reader should wonder why the couple still finds themselves together. The marriage is clearly not a happy one, “He wondered if Mr. and Mrs. Das were a bad match, just as he and his wife were. Perhaps they, too, had little in common apart from three children and a decade of their lives. The signs he recognized from his own marriage were there––the bickering, the indifference, the protracted silences” (¶79). Also, Mrs. Kasapi does not think very highly of her spouse, “his wife had little regard for his career as an interpreter” and she calls him a “doctor’s assistant”(¶78). These statements illustrate how miserable the marriage must be for the two individuals involved. Perhaps the reason they have not yet separated is because of culture. Divorce, after all, is not as accepted in other parts of the world as it is America.

Jhumpa Lahiri herself may not be against her Indian roots, but this story can be interpreted in such a manner. The story may not even be a criticism of India, but at the very least, India’s customs are to be blamed for these particular cases. The story masterfully combines the plight of both Indians living in the subcontinent as well as Indians that have moved to other parts of the world.