Battle Royal Ralph Ellison Analysis

The Right Thing to Do
Today’s generation is made to believe that you have to get an education and then work hard for the rest of your life to be able to achieve success and happiness. In Mark Twain’s “The Story of the Good Little Boy,” Jacob was raised reading books of good little boys and how happy they were. Jacob in turn wanted to become the “good little boy” he always read about but despite his various attempts in doing good, he met his ultimate fate. In Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal,” the central character believed in Booker T. Washington’s saying of “blacks can achieve success through education and industry.” Though these two stories do not share the same themes, both show the conflicts that people face due to believing you can only be happy and successful if you get and education and work hard because it is believed to be the right thing to do.
In “The Story of the Good Little Boy,” Jacob is depicted as this good little boy who believed in everything he reads and is told. The story described him as “always obeying his parents, no matter how absurd and unreasonable their demands were; and he always learned from his book” (Twain). Jacob was obsessed with this idea of …show more content…
Jacob of “The Story of the Good Little Boy” believed that if he went around being a “good little boy” he would be recognized for it but instead it got him killed. The central character of “Battle Royal” believed that he could achieve success if he got an education and worked hard. But when given a scholarship to further his education, he realized it was only a way for the people to control him and keep him in his place. Both stories are able to show the conflicts that people face when they believe that the only way for them to achieve happiness and success is through education and working hard only because it is believed to be the right thing to