While it is true that the fried hands of the Union man represents solidarity and that John is reminded of him when his own hand gets cut towards the end, an even more symbolic event takes places when these two characters meet. You see much of it in the deep South, and here in the Southwest it is not uncommon. He does not want his son to grow up basing hisidentityon his color, but rather toform an identity as a good citizen. A group of children from the quarters where John and his son live are playing John narrates the scene lyrically, with little fellows in bright sunsuits, a flock of pigeons and the wind which blew the childrens cries over to where I stood. Hes worried his job might be stolen, and continues to answer curtly, attempting to hide his annoyance. , recently published, about an attempted workers revolution in China. Why, I thought, doesnt he go on in and ask for the job? Usually his face was reflected there. In this final scene, the game becomes a metaphor for the precautions, codes, and tactics that Black people must learn to use in order to survive under Jim Crow. Foreshadowinghas been employed by Ellison in many instances of the story. It also represents a moment when two social forces of class and color meet which, if they work together for the betterment of their members, may provide a challenge to the status-quo and may change the rules of the game. Between his work ethic and his comment about what it means to be American, he appears to believe that working hard to win white peoples trust provides his best chances of advancement in a racist society. Their nurse, dressed completely in white except for her dark glasses, which I saw when she raised her head, sat still as a picture, bent over a book on her knees. A smile couldnt change things between my kind and his. `Ever smoke Durham?` he asked. His aspirations are limited by what he can see is possible, by the precedents of other people of his race. In spite of myself I had to smile. While John recognizes that his son will inevitably have to learn these codes in order to survive, his decision to join the union also shows that he now sees politics as a way out of the game. This is the closest thing to an explicit political message in this book: at least early in his life, Ellison believed that labor organizing offered Black Americans best chances at improving their position and winning justice in American life. But sometimes, bums get to the bulls first. The Union man has burned hands in support of his black friend who was wrongly accused. As I came back up the alley I was becoming alarmed. I wondered where the boy could have gone. Manage Settings He was looking into my face now, his eyes blue in his red skin. In Boy on a Train, young Jamess Daddy has died, and Jamess mother (Mama) has to move him and his baby brother Lewis to a rural town, which is the, Instant downloads of all 1725 LitChart PDFs Some of the language used in the dialogue is now taboo, yet here it is used by John himself and the union man, who is clearly in sympathy with John and is working against racial discrimination. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. `Yes, son,` I said. I didnt know what to say to that. Both texts explore the violence meted out to African-Americans in the name of justice and of course this is the context for Johns initial distrust of the man who questions him on the steps of the building. He stopped and pulled a flower from one of the bushes that lined the drive, turning to look hurriedly at the nurse, and then ran back down the drive. He is the only Black employee at the apartment building where he works, and he is often treated unfairly by his white coworkers and supervisors. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Johns answers are careful and neutral; he interprets black purely as colour, answering youre brown, taking racial division out of the response, especially when he dismisses talk of colour superiority with American is better than both. He laughed. John lies to the man, gives non-committal answers and turned [his] back to him. Johns apparent lack of concern with race is revealed as an act for his son in the encounter with the union activist as he polishes the brass later. Maybe there was a color other than white on the old ball. Instant PDF downloads. Parker cant understand them, but he finds them beautiful and moving. Me and him was trying to borrow some seed fifty miles away when it happened if it did happen. Black ball It represents all the negativity that had to go with being black, it was like a humiliation, a struggle for a daily life, and they faced a aily discrimination witch isn't correct, the prejudice. Now get him on round to the back and then come up here and clean up this mess hes made.`. They looked uneasy when I came up. Instant downloads of all 1725 LitChart PDFs The narrator remembers how he saw a white bum named Hymie kill one of the bulls. As John muses, He was learning the rules of the game already, but he didnt know it. Johns quiet satisfaction at the beginning of the story has shifted; he has become more alert to the injustice of his position. `Ill admit it aint much,` he said. The skin was drawn and puckered and looked as though it had been fried. Across the street a group of little fellows in bright sunsuits were playing on a long stretch of lawn before a white stone building. Then, Mr. Berry comes over, furious: the ball ruined one of his plants. The ball had gone into his private office. You'll also get updates on new titles we publish and the ability to save highlights and notes. This line foreshadows the event when the same Berry,like the wicked queen of the story which the boy liked so well, will label his identity with a racial slur. Johns son, though on a far smaller scale,is also blamed for something he didnt do something a white boy had done. I must have looked queer. The wild horses serve as a contrast to the confinement and restriction that James and his family experience on the train. PDF downloads of all 1725 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. He stood there watching, and I could feel his eyes in my back as I polished the brass. I turned, and there he stood; derby, long black coat, stick, nose glasses and all. Open Document. Refine any search. John tries to read, but ends up looking out the window and taking a nap instead. He had stopped his play and was still on his knees, beside the chair in his blue overalls. Creating notes and highlights requires a free LitCharts account. What ever caused you to give a damn about a Negro anyway? The theme ofrelationshipshas been portrayed in The Black Ball in both personal and public lives of the character. `Yes, son.` You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. He was four, a little brown boy in blue rompers, and when he talked and laughed with imaginary playmates, his voice was soft and round in its accents like those of most Negro Americans. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. They have to sit in the back of the segregated train, in the luggage compartment next to the engine. But actually, the stranger is an organizer with a local union. Not affiliated with Harvard College. `What are you doing today?` He promises to do so. His grandfather told him to "live with your head in the lion's mouth. I asked if they had seen a little Negro boy, but they said they hadnt. John assumes that the stranger wants his job, because the manager, Mr. Berry, has been firing his few Black employees and replacing them with white people. When we got upstairs, I sat the boy in a chair and went looking for iodine to doctor my hand. Besides that brass, his money, and the half-dozen or so plants in his office, I dont believe he had any other real interests in life. His son asks if hes Black, because the gardeners son, Jackie, is making fun of him. But what about the ball?` They did that to him and this to me, and both of us was fifty miles away.`. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1725 titles we cover. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1725 titles we cover. `Who did? But in the rest of this story, Ellison will test and challenge that assumption. `I have enough,` I said. Needless to say, Berry would not approve of his employees joining a union. " Behind the black ball " is an earlier version of the phrase " behind the eight-ball ," but it's also a reference to blackballing, or blocking someone's membership in a group. It was near twelve oclock. An aspect of this may be seen in the following exchange: When they did have something to say to us, they always became familiar. `No. (Racism helps it achieve those goals by making it easy and socially permissible to exploit Black people like John.) The evergreen cuts Johns hands. He explains that the railroads hire brutal security guards called bulls to kick bums (freight hoppers) off the trains. John mentions that Mr. Berry, his employer, hates that educatedworker implying that John isworking towards rising against the societys discrimination. Struggling with distance learning? `He was just kidding. Parker watches the barmaid pour a glass of beer and a . In the story Black Ball by Ralph Ellison the black ball symbolizes the difficulty of being a black person, the struggle, and humiliation, and discrimination of being a Negro. -Graham S. Mr. Berry, the manager, makes the same assumption that John did: a white man would never approach a Black man like John in order to help him. PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem. Complete your free account to request a guide. Throughout the story, John is constantly reminded of his race and the discrimination he faces because of it. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. Complete your free account to request a guide. Itll mean shorter ours and higher wages, and better conditions in general.` The railroad, with its segregation and violence, serves as a symbol of the systemic racism and discrimination that Black people faced in American society. Then he asked if he could go out and play with his ball, and since I would soon have to go down myself to water the lawn, I told him it would be all right. The child had been Jackie, the little son of the white gardener who worked across the street. Dreams and visions generally symbolize the power of the subconscious mind. Though the ball is more of a white color, as reminded by his son,John unwittingly uses the same languageused by his white employer. The Union mans burned handsare a verysymbolicpart of the story. literature. Indeed, poor little rascal, he would play until he grew sick of playing. Of course, when Johns son emphasizes that the ball is really white, not Black, he is also drawing attention to the fact that a white boy really threw the ball through Mr. Berrys window, and yet he is being punished for it. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. `Anybody can see my ball is white.`. He was looking very earnestly. Ellison approaches the theme of racism and struggle in The Black Ball through an interaction-based first-person narrative. `In time.`. ), but of course it always marked out African-Americans as other on the grounds of race, and recognition of this led to the change of attitude towards such language. Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. In the first story, Boy on a Train, a little boy named James leaves Oklahoma City with his mother and his baby brother Lewis in 1924. He says that Welshmen love Black Yanks, and he invites Parker to a local singing club. But Id begin telling him the rules later. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. The white children are foils for Johns son: they show how he is (and will be) excluded from mainstream American life due to the color line. The Black Ball is a posthumous collection of four little-known short stories from the early career of renowned African American novelist Ralph Ellison. This is a promising alternative to his current plan: to work hard and hope that his boss shows him mercy. The Dark-Lensed Glasses The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is full of symbols that represent the narrator's struggle to live up to his identity. While narrated in the first person by an African-American caretaker, it is perhaps his son who is the central character of the story. The story's narrator explains how he left home in search of work, only to end up freight hopping his way around the country. The accused man, though, was lynched and had his house burned down. My, yes, the old ball game. `I guess not.`. Struggling with distance learning? `You know, Daddy. `John, is that your boy?` he snapped. This is what John tells his son as he tries to explain him Mr. Berrys warning: `He meant, son, that if your ball landed in his office again, Daddy would go after it behindthe old black ball.. Copyright 1999 - 2023 GradeSaver LLC. He realizes that Black Americans and the Welsh have a lot in common as subjugated peoples within larger nations (the U.S. and U.K.). You'll also get updates on new titles we publish and the ability to save highlights and notes. Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. Teachers and parents! One witnesses the theme ofracismearly on in the story when the four-year old kid grapples with the issue of color and race. Continue with Recommended Cookies.

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