ship and wolf

Liudmyla Vygnanets
English Composition 1
Dr. Daniel
Wolf vs. ship Two stories “Battle Royal “(1947) by Ralph Ellison’s and Training Day (2001) by Antoine Fuqua’s. In both story main characters who have the goal and both of them try to achieve that goal but each of them is going to achieve that goal by different way. In Training Day the main character Alonzo tries to achieve his goal by brutal, cruel way, he is portrayed as a wolf in this story. The other character in “Battle Royal” portrayed as shy, intelligent, young man who wants to achieve his goal by his own struggle, he is shown in this story as a ship. "To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf.” One of them Training Day Alonzo Harris the black headstrong officer and willed cop in 2001 for whose years experience in the streets who mistrust his methods, and Jake Hoyt , a white rookie cop, experienced the first training day of his new job and he has first day with Alonzo. This film shows that Alonzo is cruel and despite circumstances he will do everything necessary to get what he wants. To achieve his goal he is going to use young partner to kill a drug dealer and pick up a lot of money for his own purposes. The first scene of the film shows how is referred to a “wolf”, he takes over white rookie cop, when he forced him to smoke drugs in order to use it against him latter on, for his own purpose. Scene when Jake get involved into a fight in order to safe a girl's life from being raping, Alonzo stood aside and watched, he did not participate in the fight until one of the rapists personally insulted Alonzo, but after all he lets them go because his belief of "street justice". His behavior, conversation, power, controlling, mind games, power critical, his car also speaks about his character because of that style that is often associated with gangsters. His behavior shows that he is portrayed as a wolf in this situation. He also shows his wild character in the scene where he kills his "friend", he shoots Roger for his own purpose. On other hand “Battle Royal” is a story of the main character, the narrator as a black young man in the early 1930’s, struggling with his own self-worth. Since the beginning of the story the main character was very intelligent and because of this, the great white businessmen ask him to give a speech at a hotel. When he was delivered to that hotel he felt as a “ship” in tight group, he stood to the some of the most important white men in the town , they put him through many abusive acts for their enjoyment. This boys were as a ship in front of those rich, influential white men. When naked women danced he felt at the same level with her, because they both were in front of those men, and they both suffered to satisfy their needs. He was fighting in purpose just to deliver his speech, not because he was enjoying the fight, during the fight he was desperate and felt sick and “alone with an unknown danger”.( pg.289) After all was done, the boy delivered his speech, during the speech the boy couldn’t talk because he was swallowing blood and he was tortured; people was yelling at him, throwing nasty comments, this made him feel as a ship even more. Both stories are about achieving goal, but each of them does it in a different way, the first one Training Day (2001) by Antoine Fuqua’s, at the beginning the main character was compared to the wolf, he thought that he would get what he wanted he believed into “street justice”. He referred to controlling, manipulating and it didn’t help him. It shows that despite the fact that Alonzo was powerful as a wolf and he also took power over those people around him, all of his actions lead him to the death. Nor money nor killing of his “friend”, not even control over the people didn’t safe him from his death, he chose the wrong way and end up tragically. In the other text “Battle Royal “(1947) by Ralph Ellison’s focused on intelligence and self-worth, he went through the struggle by his own, to get to his goal, even if he wasn’t powerful, all those men made fun of him, and made him felt as a ship, but he got what he wanted through struggle and his hard work. In the beginning of the story he referred as a ship, not really confident, intelligent and in reward he succeed in the end.