In “Battle Royal,” Ellison uses details of setting to create the mood of horror and repulsion. The horror begins when the narrator listens to a conversation between his father and grandfather, as his grandfather lay on his death bed. “Son, after I’m gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy …showed first 75 words of 902 total…

…showed last 75 words of 902 total…the first scene next to the grandfather’s death bed, to the money on the rug. He takes his readers to the fight to see just what’s taking place, not only in the mind of the narrator, but in the minds of the upper-class white folks as well. By describing to the readers the details of each scene, he gives them a chilling sense of what it’s like to be horrified and hated.