Journal Section 3: A Party Down at the Square

By Nathanael Foo
Explain how ideas of racism provoke a response from the reader.
Racial inequality has been an issue has spanned decades of human history. The attainment
of true equality within society is a goal that our civilization strives to achieve. A Party Down
at the Square by Ralph Ellison is a short story that depicts the immorality of racism, and the
deadly repercussions that can occur from the acts of racial prejudice within society. Ellison
uses the narrative conventions, including characterization and point of view to convey
negative connotations about racism, and evokes a sympathetic response from the reader
towards victims of racism.
The characterization within the short story provides an in-depth contrast between the victims
and perpetuators of racial discrimination. Jed Wilson is portrayed as the representation of
the racists in the town that the text is set in. He is the instigator of the lynching in the square.
We can see that he is devoid of any sympathy towards the Afro-American peoples, he leads
the mob, and is expected to be voted sheriff. The fact that he says: aint no Christians
around tonightWere just one hundred percent Americans displays how he is going
against everything that America stands for: equality among all. The setting that is most
probably in the Southern states of America further amplifies Jeds hypocrisy, with the
Southern people usually being more faithful to Christianity than the North in America. The
lynching victim is seen to be a helpless African American, innocent of crime, and unable to
do anything about the situation. The fact that he is unnamed displays how in the eyes of the
white racists, they are dehumanised, and devoid of an identity. The representation of the
African American people within one nameless human that is killed with no mercy symbolises
how they are stripped of their individuality. This evokes a sympathetic response in the reader,
and demonises the racial discriminators within society.
The point of view conveys the events within the story in an unbiased manner, displaying
events from the eyes of an innocent child. We can see bystander effect coming into play
through the eyes of the narrator. He is physically disgusted by the events that he witnesses,
but he continues to view them, this shows the pressure of the dominant discourse, affecting
the psychology of an innocent child. A statue of a Confederate general stands above the
town square where the lynching occurs, and the narrator says that he was fixing to run over
and climb between his legs and sit there and watch. The statue symbolises the freedom and
equality that the American people believe in, with the innocent narrator climbing under the
protection of the statue, we can see how he is still untainted by the desensitizing values and
beliefs of the hegemony within the society that he lives in. The incorrect grammar and
spelling of some words within the story provides validity to the narrators innocence.