What is the theme of Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal"?

"Battle Royal" is part of Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man in which Ellison likens being black to being invisible to white race.  There are several themes running through this short story, but perhaps the two most important are 1) a very tragic version of the "coming of age" experience and 2) the realization that personal accomplishments mean nothing for a black person in a society dominated by racism.

At the beginning of the story, the narrator is happily anticipating the speech he has been asked to give in front of the leading (white) citizens of the town.  In this sense, he is a typical naif, that is, he is too inexperienced to understand his true position in this society.  Because he is to give his speech in front of the most important people in the town--political leaders, religious leaders, school leaders--he assumes this affair is going to be a dignified and positive recognition of his achievements, but after he arrives at the meeting, he discovers that he is part of the Battle Royal: "I suspected that fighting a battle royal might detract from the dignity of my speech."  As he will learn, unfortunately, dignity is the last thing the white "leading citizens" are interested in.

In an incredibly demeaning sequence, he and the other teenagers are forced to watch a naked white woman dance, threatened by the white men if they look away.  This is, of course, an incredibly dangerous time for these black teenagers because they are set up to violate perhaps the most serious taboo in a racist world--being sexually attracted to a white woman.

After this horrific experience, they are forced to fight each other, and if they don't fight as the whites think they should, they begin hearing threats from the audience like "I want to get at that ginger colored nigger," an indication that these white men, despite the fact that they are the town's leading citizens, think nothing of killing a black.  Even when the narrator attempts to bribe his black opponent to "throw" the fight between them, his opponent, behaving exactly the way the white audience expects him to, attacks the narrator with renewed vigor.  He understands, of course, that the only safe way out of this situation is to behave as he is expected to behave.

The final insult in the fight sequence consists of the white men tossing fake coins onto an electrified mat so that can watch the teenagers react to the electricity as they attempt to pick up coins.  The narrator, at this point, fully understands the he is a puppet in the hands of some perverted puppeteers.

By this point in the story, the narrator has come of age or, more to the point, come of race.  He has, however, one more important fact to learn about his place in this society.  When he finally gives his speech and mentions equality of the races, the reaction of the white men is, not surprisingly, negative.  They make sure that the narrator understands that equality is not the appropriate goal--the appropriate goal is to know one's place in this society, and that place is not equal--"you've got to know your place at all times."  The narrator finally understands his grandfather's dictum: "Keep this nigger-boy running."

What is your response to the short story "Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison?

I would respond to this story by saying it shows the evils of racism. The narrator is a high school graduate who has won a scholarship to a state college for blacks. He is invited, along with other honored black youth, to an awards banquet in the ballroom of a leading hotel by the leading white men of the town.

When he and the other young black men arrive, they realize that no honor goes without a humiliation if you are black in this society. The boys cannot simply be given their awards or scholarships, but must first be degraded and put in their places as blacks in a white-dominated community. They are forced to fight blindfolded for the amusement of the town's leading white men. They then have to grab for gold coins, which in reality are useless brass tokens, on a floor that has been electrified, while the audience laughs at their pain. They are called "boy," and ordered around.

The narrator, despite his grandfather warning him on his deathbed that whites are the enemy, is still proud and overwhelmed to have gotten the scholarship. However, the seeds have been planted in his mind to distrust whites as people who are not on his side. We, as readers, are upset and anguished that these young men have to undergo humiliation.

Battle Royal is a testament to the seven deadly sins. We recognize those to be wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.  In striving for equality, it seems that we feel those sins will be lost.  That is not true.  They are sometimes simply magnified.  

The young man allowed his pride to fuel the envy and wrath of his colleagues. The fighters' greed and gluttony allowed them to use the lust and sloth of the town leaders to try to achieve riches.  In the end, no one was successful.

The prize that the narrator gained was merely window dressing for participating in the debauchery of the evening. There was no triumph because evil had still prevailed. The only equality that had been achieved was to be unfaithful to himself and lower his standards to those who had chosen to try to raise themselves up by stepping on other human beings. 

What occurs during the narrator's speech in Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal"?

Initially, the crowd of white men, many of whom are the worst for wear, pay not the slightest attention to the narrator as he delivers his high school graduation speech. They're not there to listen to an African American boy talk about Booker T. Washington; they simply want to indulge in some hard drinking and a spot of entertainment. So as the narrator continues with his speech, his unappreciative audience pays him no attention whatsoever, drinking and laughing instead of listening to what he has to say.

But when the narrator makes a mistake in his speech, ears start pricking up immediately. The young boy had intended to say "social responsibility" but instead comes out with "social equality." To the white supremacist audience, these words are like a red rag to a bull. To these men, "social equality" smacks of "racial equality," to which they're implacably opposed.

Their response to what they regard as a dangerous notion can only be imagined. They immediately start getting restless and angry; a few members of the audience demand that the narrator explain himself. Thankfully, the boy is able to defuse the mounting tension by admitting his mistake and continuing on with his speech. When he's finished, the narrator is given a raucous round of applause.

How does the plot develop in Battle Royal by Ralph Ellison?

The action in Ellison's Battle Royal is framed by references to the boy's grandfather, who early on is quoted as telling his own son to infiltrate the white world and to defeat it with agreement, appeasement and grins. 

"Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open."

The boy worries that he is unwittingly and unintentionally already carrying out a program of acquiescence and the action of Battle Royal demonstrates some of the ways in which the boy allows himself to be co-opted by the powerful white men of the town, adopting their own views (of him) in ways that contradict the grandfather's exhortation. 

After giving a popular speech at his graduation, the narrator is invited to give the speech in front of "the town's big shots" and upon accepting the invitation is told that he will be included in a battle royal with other African American boys at the event. The other boys resent the narrator for several reasons but they all share in his shame, outrage and embarrassment when they are made to watch a woman dance nude in front of the crowd of men. 

The boys are then blindfolded and fight an ineffective but prolonged fight against one another, each boy for himself. At the end of the group fight, the narrator is not quick enough in his thinking to escape the ring and so is forced to fight the biggest boy, Tatlock.

Denying the narrator's offers of money if he were to throw the fight, Tatlock knocks the narrator down and wins the fight. Next the boys are tricked into scratching and scraping for money on a electrified rug in a moment of crude debasement. (While the previous actions of the men at the event have been quite cruel and crude, this may be the most humiliating and debasing part of the evening as the boys are sometimes pushed onto the mat and shocked.)

When the boys are paid, the narrator is finally asked to give his speech, which the men appear not to pay any attention to. He is ridiculed whenever he uses multi-syllabic terms, which leads him at one point to blurt out the phrase "social equality" instead of "social responsibility." This mis-speech silences the men for a while, but is soon remedied when one of the men makes sure that the narrator had not intended to say "social equality." 

"Well, you had better speak more slowly so we can understand. We mean to do right by you, but you've got to know your place at all times."

This statement of position resonates with the final scene in the story wherein the narrator dreams of his grandfather mocking the prize given to the narrator for his speech. Imagining his grandfather telling him to open his new briefcase just as the white men had done, the narrator finds envelope after envelope and is told to keep opening them. 

The grandfather then bursts out laughing after he tells his grandson to read a final note that suggests the whole purpose of the accolades given to the boy are meant to keep him running his whole life. 

By opening and closing the story with references to the grandfather who has advocated a high degree of self-consciousness in relation to Caucasians, Ellison presents a narrative that features irony at its core as the narrator is only vaguely capable of understanding his grandfather's message and is only fleetingly aware of how his own identity is being defined by the views of the men at the event who see him as an inferior being.  

What is the narrator trying to convey in "Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison?

Part of the message, as I take it, is that the boys in the fight are desperate and terrified. Their relationship to the society they live in is, essentially, one of abuse. 

These boys are so needy that they agree to this crazy fight, where they hurt one another and humiliate themselves.

They seek approval from the people who humiliate them. There is a sickness at the bottom of the message, in my view.

"Battle Royal" presents a startling scene of violence, naiveté and economic power—a scene that implies the philosophical depth behind the institutions of racism and the pathos of asserting an identity in the shadow of historical tragedy.

One of the things the narrator is trying tell us is that everyone will give us advice, but we have to make our own decisions.  Each person has to choose for his or her self what is right and what is wrong.

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive.

The narrator’s point is that no one else can answer his questions for him.  Only he can really provide the answer.  When the situation comes up of how to react to the fight and the speech, and whether to correct himself when he accidentally mentions social equity.  In the end, has he found his own answer?  He is not sure yet.  He does not know if he will continue to be meek, or if he is destined to follow his grandfather’s footsteps as a social reformer.

Part of the message, as I take it, is that the boys in the fight are desperate and terrified. Their relationship to the society they live in is, essentially, one of abuse. 

These boys are so needy that they agree to this crazy fight, where they hurt one another and humiliate themselves.

They seek approval from the people who humiliate them. There is a sickness at the bottom of the message, in my view.

"Battle Royal" presents a startling scene of violence, naiveté and economic power—a scene that implies the philosophical depth behind the institutions of racism and the pathos of asserting an identity in the shadow of historical tragedy.

One of the things the narrator is trying tell us is that everyone will give us advice, but we have to make our own decisions.  Each person has to choose for his or her self what is right and what is wrong.

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive.

The narrator’s point is that no one else can answer his questions for him.  Only he can really provide the answer.  When the situation comes up of how to react to the fight and the speech, and whether to correct himself when he accidentally mentions social equity.  In the end, has he found his own answer?  He is not sure yet.  He does not know if he will continue to be meek, or if he is destined to follow his grandfather’s footsteps as a social reformer.