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The Black Ball
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Black Ball, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race, Nation, and Belonging
Racial Violence and Injustice
Politics and Solidarity
Childhood and Innocence
Summary
Analysis
In a pub in Wales, a Black American soldier named Mr. Parker covers one of his eyes in order to see better, then he watches his companion, Mr. Catti, finish a glass of beer. Parker comments that he missed good beer on the ship, and Mr. Catti replies that Welsh ale was better before the war. Parker watches the barmaid pour a glass of beer and a Welsh man sing the song “Treat Me Like an Irish Soldier” across the bar. He just got to Wales 45 minutes ago; Mr. Catti says that he has “much to see” and goes to refill their beers.
In this final story, which is based on his personal experience being stationed in Wales during World War II, Ellison asks whether it might be easier to understand what it really means to be a Black American from the other side of the Atlantic. Readers will immediately notice that Mr. Parker’s relationship with Mr. Catti is unlike every other relationship between white and Black people in this book, simply because it’s equal. Unlike white Americans, Mr. Catti doesn’t look down on Mr. Parker from across the color line.
Themes
But Mr. Parker thinks that he has already “seen enough” of Wales. As soon as he arrived, a group of other American soldiers flashed a light at him, called him “a goddamn n[—],” and punched him in the eye. Fortunately, Mr. Catti and his friends arrived and brought Mr. Parker away to the pub. Mr. Parker is astonished that Mr. Catti is so “genuinely and uncondescendingly polite.” He asks Mr. Catti if there are “many like me in Wales,” and Mr. Catti says yes: “Yanks all over the place. Black Yanks and white.” He even says that the “Black Yanks” are “fine lad[s].” Mr. Parker is pleasantly surprised.
Mr. Parker’s confrontation with the soldiers explains why he’s covering his eye in the bar and shows that, even though they fought together during the war, Americans didn’t leave the color line at home. Of course, Ellison uses this to point out how truly absurd and counterproductive racism is: it divides Americans against each other, such that Black soldiers like Parker face more at home among foreigners than among their fellow Americans. Indeed, Parker is surprised at Catti’s line about “Black Yanks and white” because, when he asked about people “like me,” he meant Black people—it never crossed his mind that Black and white Americans are the same by virtue of being American. Similarly, in the U.S., he would never count as a “Yankee,” as that term is generally coded to refer to white people. Thus, whereas white Americans see Black Americans as Black first and American second (or not at all), Catti sees Parker as American first and Black second.
Themes
Mr. Catti apologizes and explains that he has to leave to give a concert with his singing club. But he invites Mr. Parker to join him. Even though he loves music, Mr. Parker decides it’s better not to go. But Mr. Catti promises that it’s a private club, just for members and their guests. They might even sing Black American spirituals. Mr. Catti explains that Welsh people love folk music, just like Black Americans. Mr. Parker agrees to go.
Parker still struggles to see Catti’s hospitality as genuine, because a white man has never treated him this way before. When Catti comments that Welsh and Black people all love folk music, he points out an important parallel between Wales and Black America: both are subjugated nations within a larger country. (England has colonized Wales since the 1400s and tried to destroy its language and culture in the process.)
Themes
Mr. Catti leads Mr. Parker down the street to the concert. On the way, they hear teenage girls singing an American song; Mr. Parker worries that he will run into more Americans, and his night will end badly. He jokes to himself that maybe the club will sing “that old ‘spiritual’ classic […] Massa’s in de Old Cold Masochism!” When he enters the bar, the light blinds his injured eye; he sees several tables with folding chairs and hears a man playing the piano. Mr. Catti orders two whiskeys from the jovial club manager, Mr. Triffit, and introduces him to Mr. Parker. They toast to their health, to Wales, and to America.
The teenage girls’ song foreshadows the story’s closing scene and shows that white American culture was already spreading fast around the world and shaping global culture in the 1940s, much as it does today. Clearly, Parker struggles to understand this culture apart from the way it has oppressed him. He was always an outsider to it at home, but is now suddenly treated as an insider to it in Wales. His joke about “de Old Cold Masochism” is a reference to his own discomfort: while he’s curious about how Welsh people perceive him and Black American culture, he’s very anxious being surrounded by white people, and he worries that he is putting himself in further danger. (He would never take similar risks back in the U.S.)
Themes
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Mr. Parker and Mr. Catti sit, and then the choir starts singing folk tunes in Welsh. Mr. Parker loves the songs’ “warm richness,” but he also feels a sense of alienation because he can’t understand them. He asks Mr. Catti if the song is about Wales, and Mr. Catti says yes; the first, he explains, was about the Welsh defeating the English in battle. Mr. Catti comments that music “reveal[s] what’s in the heart,” and it’s possible to understand it even without the lyrics. Mr. Catti looks pleased, and Mr. Parker thinks about how he wishes Black Americans had such a strong sense of national identity and history as the Welsh. Mr. Parker hopes he can understand the “anguish and exultation” that the Welsh feel about their nation.
Indeed, Mr. Parker’s feelings about the Welsh are very similar to his Welsh friends’ feelings about Americans: he appreciates them so much in part because he doesn’t fully understand them. This rich yet alienating cultural experience allows him to reflect more deeply on his own culture and identity—specifically, it shows him that Black Americans can work harder to build social and cultural institutions that would unite them around their shared identity, experiences, and political goals. In fact, through Parker’s internal monologue, Ellison proposes a daring idea: Black Americans are really a nation, a distinct people united by a shared history. But, he suggests, they have to start identifying as a nation if they want to eventually liberate themselves.
Themes
Mr. Catti tells Mr. Parker that the choir members are a mine owner, a miner, a butcher, and a union organizer. When they sing, he declares, people put their differences aside and simply get along as Welshmen. Mr. Parker realizes that he has never felt so close to white men in his life—not even when fighting alongside them in the war.
The choir’s composition shows that Welsh identity also connects people across class lines. But this kind of solidarity is very uncommon in the U.S.—even among Black people, as Ellison would argue in much of his writing. Again, Ellison emphasizes that class politics is just as important as racial politics if Americans want to change their society for the better.
Themes
Mr. Parker thinks about how music brings people together and how much he already loves the Welsh. He remembers the racism in Othello but still decides that “I want to believe in this people.” But this feels wrong: in America, he is so used to being cynical about his nation, and about white people. It feels like Welsh people have “exposed” him with “the brilliant light of their deeper humanity,” because they see him for who he really is. But he also remembers that he has to go back to his ship and to his home in Harlem.
In the past, Parker has been suspicious of white people in general because of his specific experiences with white Americans. This is why he now struggles to separate white Americans (who are generally racist) from the white Welsh men he has met (who are not). But he also warns himself against foolishly applying his warm feelings toward the Welsh men to white Americans back home. He remembers Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello—whose title character is Black and which is full of racism—to remind himself that British culture also has an anti-Black streak. Yet it is simply nothing like the pervasive anti-Black politics and attitudes in the U.S.
Themes
Mr. Catti asks about Mr. Parker’s eye and calls it “a bloody shame,” but Mr. Parker says that this has still been one of the best nights of his life. Mr. Catti remarks that everyone is glad Mr. Parker came to the concert, since they can see that he loves the music. He lends Mr. Parker his flashlight and explains that he doesn’t need it since he “know[s] the city like [his] own palm.”
Parker’s suspicion and anxiety turn out to have been totally unfounded: Catti’s hospitality is genuine. Indeed, his willingness to part with his flashlight shows how comfortable he is at home in Wales. This sense of safety and belonging would have been almost impossible for Black Americans to imagine in the mid-20th century, as their lives were constantly under threat anywhere they went in the U.S.
Themes
Everyone stands up for the next song, and Mr. Parker realizes that it’s the Welsh national anthem. Next, they sing “God Save the King” and the “Internationale.” And then, Mr. Catti nudges Mr. Parker, who notices that everyone is looking at him. He immediately recognizes the next song. At first, he feels that he’s about to perform an “unwilled and degrading act” in front of everyone, but then, he starts to feel like the song has “some vast new meaning.”
“God Save the King” is the U.K.’s anthem, and the “Internationale” is a famous left-wing workers’ song that was also the Soviet national anthem. (The men are singing it because the Soviet Union was the U.K. and U.S.’s primary ally in World War II.) Clearly, the Welsh people’s national pride does not stop them from taking pride in the whole U.K., or in their allies. On the contrary, it shows that pride in one’s own nation can go hand in hand with respect for other nations.
Themes
Mr. Parker hears himself singing, almost against his will: “…Gave proof through the night / That our flag was still there…” He feels a rush of guilt, then relief. This is the first time he has sincerely believed in the song’s meaning. After he finishes the song, Mr. Catti compliments his voice. The other men jokingly ask him to stay in Wales and join their club. Speechless, he clutches the flashlight and tries not to cry.
Parker’s emotional response to singing the national anthem represents his changing feelings about what it means to be American. He doesn’t believe the words for the first time simply because he has just been fighting for his flag in the war—it’s also because he truly feels proud to be American for the first time. In the past, he has primarily thought of the U.S. in terms of the way it has oppressed him and his people. But now, he sees how Black people and their culture are actually central parts of the American identity. Yet this has only been possible because his Welsh acquaintances have honored and valued him as an American. Thus, the story ends on a hopeful note: Ellison shows what it would look like for Black people to eventually find a sense of identity, pride, and belonging in their Americanness—even if this is only possible in some distant, murky future.
Themes
