The constant themes seen in “Battle Royal”, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, and The Mississippi River Empties into the Gulf are using blood as a metaphorical aspect and talking about people of the past. The story, “Battle Royal”, gives meticulous explanations of blood and the ancestors of the speaker. During a scene the speaker states that while executing his speech he had to continuously swallow his blood down. The blood represented his pride and voice that he had to keep controlled so as to not upset the white people he was speaking in front of, “So I gulped it down, blood, saliva and all, and continued.” Towards the beginning of the chapter the speaker talks of his ancestors and how he is dispirited in himself for being ashamed of his past,
