Topic: Comparison/Contrast Essay Battle Royal “ by Ralph Ellison The main character in the book is without a name and tells his story as the first-person narrator. He has issues pertaining to the aspect of self-identity as he reckons he has found it difficult to satisfy questions to his self-identity. This is because for the first couple of decades of his life he had relied on other people to provide him with answers relating to his self-identity only to realize that that it is only he himself who can figure out what he is. This main character is the protagonist and an unnamed African American man who regards himself as a socially invisible man. This character bemoans his own personality in terms of his invisibility for most of the story but ultimately comes to embrace it. He appreciates his state of invisibility because of its advantageous nature in the sense that it helps hims to remain inconspicuous and undetected. The main character of this story is seen by everyone as a stereotype as opposed to a real person. This is brought about by the fact that the narrator or main character literally wears a blindfold. The negative treatment of the narrator stems from history where his grandparents “ who were African American slaves “ were racially discriminated by the whites. As the whites and blacks were separate from each like œfingers of the hand. He is abused by others and sized up as a mere stereotype, something that greatly erodes his individuality as well as human dimension. the outcome of this actions is that there is political change that come by because of the effects of the œovert action. œWhere are you Going, Where have you Been? by Joyce Carol Oates Connie, the main character in the story œWhere are you Going, Where have you Been? by Joyce Carol Oates, has personality issues in the form of unstable sense of sense. The 15 year old has the habit of often wanting to bolster the knowledge that she is pretty. As she has the tendency of checking herself out in the mirrors. She regards her beauty as œeverything which means that she would be worthless without her pretty face. This insecurity renders her vulnerable to the will of other people and eventually makes her to run off with Arnold Friend “ a mysterious kidnapper attracted by Connie’s beauty for all the wrong reasons. Connie feels completely responsible to her fate because of her low self-esteem that her sorry relationship with her family that she is used to. Connie has therefore two identities: the good one that is for the benefit of her family; and the evil one that she puts up for her friends. The guarded side of Connie is because of her mother who usually scolds her and calls her lazy and unreliable. Connie’s fractured relationship with her mother especially is the reason for her fear of intimacy. She often has frequent excursions with boys she meets while there is no sign that is ever interested in them or being with one for more than one night. She also keeps distant by avoiding establishing any real connections with her girlfriends. Connie’s leaving of her home for the last time shows that she has surrendered her own identity to Arnold’s desires. The lack of a definite ending to the story leaves the reader to speculate about the end of Connie, whether she fall forever or find redemption. Her ultimate fate would be dependent on the course her personality would take. References: Ellison, Ralph, (1994), Invisible Man. Modern Library,