The Black Ball

by

Ralph Ellison

The Black Ball Symbols

Trains

“Boy on a Train” and “Hymie’s Bull” are both set primarily on moving trains, which represent a core but elusive American ideal: the promise that migration can bring freedom and a better life. Both stories’…

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The White and Black Balls

In “The Black Ball,” John and his son’s conversation about the white and black balls represents the constant risk that bias, suspicion, and misinterpretation pose for Black people under Jim Crow. After a white…

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