Prejudice And Racism Exposed In Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal

The core theme of Ralph Ellison’s short story ‘Battle Royal’ is racism and its manifestation in the society that the author lives in. The conflict between the two cultures, black and white, the segregation and suppression of the African Americans by the whites are emphasized through various incidents. The fact is that the narrator himself unconsciously gives in to racism and as a black man longs for the approval of the white man. He considers himself superior to the other blacks. But the ‘battle royal’ that he is compelled to participate in finally makes him realize that in the society he lives he is “an invisible man.” Through the course of the short story the narrator learns to understand himself and recognize his invisibility in a society

“It was a triumph for the whole community” (Ellison 2). But when he arrived at the ballroom where the “smoker” was being held he was herded into an elevator with nine other black boys like him. “I didn't care too much for the other fellows who were to take part” (Ellison 2). He resented them, considering himself superior to them, after all he had been invited there to read his graduation speech, besides he “suspected that fighting a battle royal might detract from the dignity of [his] speech” (Ellison 2). They resented him too, since one of their own had lost the money he would have earned for that night’s event because the narrator had replaced him. The narrator’s unquestioned participation in all that subsequently took place that evening is an indication of his blindness, to the realities of

Initially he had thought he was better than the rest since he was intelligent and had come to give a speech. But once he was striped and blindfolded he realized that in the eyes of the white man he was no different from the rest and so he was actually ‘invisible.” This episode at the hotel ballroom taught him a hard lesson on betrayal, how promises are broken, how rules are not the same for everyone. There were no rules to the game, “no rounds, no bells at three minute intervals to relieve our exhaustion” (Ellison 6). When it was time to “slug it out for the winner’s prize” (Ellison 6) he realized that the large guy Tatlock who he was to fight considered him his enemy and refused to let up even after the narrator offered him seven dollars. Further humiliation was in store when the boys had to fight for coins and bills that were strewn on a rug, which they realized too late was electrified. The “good, hard American cash” (Ellison 8) that they thought they were fighting for turned out to be “brass pocket tokens advertising a certain make of automobiles” (Ellison 12). The entire incident made the narrator understand his own invisibility; the blacks were not important enough to be allowed to fight for real