Ralph Ellison, a Black writer, and Flannery O'Connor, a white writer, both perceive the South as a racist, hierarchical society. Both condemn Southern racism, as we can see if we compare two of their short stories, "Battle Royale" by Ellison and O'Connor's "Revelation."

"Battle Royale" is told from the point of view of a Black high school graduate who is delighted to be receiving a college scholarship. However, to collect it, he is forced through a humiliating and frightening series of events, including fighting other Black youths blindfolded, having to pick money off an electrified carpet, and being confronted with a naked white woman, knowing that even looking at her could lead to a lynching. All of this is done for the amusement of the white male town leaders, and also to send the message to Blacks to accept their place in Southern society.

"Revelation" is told from the point of a view of smug, self-satisfied, racist white woman, who thanks God she wasn't born Black, and who preens herself on not being white trash. She little realizes how dreadful she is and is surprised when an ugly young woman in a doctor's waiting room screams that she is a "wart hog" and physically attacks her.

Both writers use different techniques to expose and condemn the racism and classism of Southern society. O'Connor uses humor and the main character, Ruby Turpin's, revelation of her own sin, to point a finger at what is wrong with her culture. O'Connor finds the possibility of redemption through God's grace. Ellison reveals the pain of racism by showing how it is experienced by an innocent Black youth. For Ellison, the only exit is to see through illusion and leave behind the South and its hopelessly racist social system.

What are the key differences between Flannery O'Connor's and Ralph Ellison's views of the South?

The most significant differences between Ralph Ellison's and Flannery O'Connor's assessment from the South arise from their different social locations.

Because O'Connor was born to a middle-class white family in Georgia, she had a different experience of racism than Ellison. If you visit her house in Savannah or the farm where she later lived, you recognize she lived in comfort. As a white person, she was accepted into the dominant class hierarchy. While she condemns racism in her stories, it is clear that she did not and could not fully feel the sharp pains and limitations that Black people experienced from a social and economic system stacked against them.

Ellison, in contrast, was born into poverty in Oklahoma and had to claw his way out of it; for instance, by jumping illegally onto freight trains to get to college because he had no money for the railroad fare. That is a kind of dire economic situation O'Connor never had to face. Ellison's experience of racism was sharp, immediate, oppressive, and systemic. In contrast, O'Connor's suffering, from the lupus that killed her young, felt individual and personal.

As a result, O'Connor differed from Ellison in locating the main problem in the South as a spiritual one. As a devout Roman Catholic, she saw racism as a sin that came from pride. She believed it could be addressed if more people could acknowledge their need for God's grace. Ellison, on the other hand, rejected Christianity as white propaganda and became a communist, though he later left the communists because he believed they betrayed Black people. He saw the racism in the South as primarily a problem of capitalist economics.