"Battle Royal", an excerpt from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, is far more than a commentary on the racial issues faced in society at that time. It is an example of African-American literature that addresses not only the social impacts of racism, but the psychological components as well. The narrator (IM) is thrust from living according to the perceptions of who he believes himself to be to trying to survive in a realm where he isn't supposed to exist, much less thrive. The invisibility of a mass of people in a society fed the derivation of IM's accepted, willed, blindness. The reader must determine the source of what makes IM invisible. Is part of IM's invisibility due to his self-image or surrender to the dominant voice in the United States? The answer lies in whether or not the blindness and the invisibility were voluntary or compulsory.

The relationship between IM's blindness and his invisibility are not due solely to the color of his skin. There is a level of invisibility that does directly result from the prejudice of the white men. The white community is

It is not only the image of a white woman that he cannot have; it is everything the woman is in white society. She is the national treasure, the mother of the future; she is wealth, status, power and freedom. Her hair is gold, wealth. Her place in center stage is status and power. Her nakedness is freedom. The woman herself is not truly free, but this is invisible to IM. He only sees "that in all the room she saw only [him] with her impersonal eyes" (1527). He does not seem to focus on the impersonal aspect of her eyes. He only sees that she is looking at him. He cannot see that she does not see him. He does not see that the dancer's personhood is invisible to everyone watching her. The dancer's person is as invisible to IM as IM is to the dancer. He sees a white stripper; the world sees a white stripper. He looks in the mirror and sees a young man with a bright future; the world sees a "shine". He does not apply his rules of perception to himself.

IM's intentions for the night never changed. The battle ends and the blindfolds are removed. IM's memories from the ring are pushed aside by his ultimate goal, making his beloved speech. When he is allowed to see again he cannot see any more than he could while the blindfold covered both of his eyes. He never saw the connection between the stripper, the battle royal and his speech all taking place in the same arena. He believed he was perpetuating himself as the pinnacle of being a good black man. He presents his speech on the benefits of humility in the black race. Instead of receiving the acceptance that he had been counting on all night, he is subjected to the humility that he has been such a proponent of. The reaction of the white society was to view the speech as a game, entertainment. "Whenever [he] uttered a word of three or more syllables a group of voices would yell for [him] to repeat it" (1533). He was so involved in the presentation of his speech he did not see that "the men were still talking and laughing . . . as though deaf with cotton in dirty ears" (1533). IM was in the center of the room, presenting the ideas that got him invited to the smoker in the first place and no one in the room could see him. He was in the center of the room sharing the words he prided himself on and he could not see that no one was listening. Like a trained monkey with a hat he did not care if anyone tipped him or not, the show went on until the music stopped.

The men in the ring fought one against the other, "No group fought together for long. Two, three, four fought one, then turned to fight each other . . . " (1529). Like crabs in a barrel, no one was allowed to escape the barrage of fists. The men reached out blindly, striking whatever was close enough to hit. For five dollars, the men allowed themselves to be subjected to blindness and humiliation. Blacks were turned against blacks in striving for a few extra dollars. IM is witness to all of this and subject to it at the same time. He dodges blows and connects some himself, but also allows himself to be pummeled in order to maintain his ability to see. For a moment he has realized that there is a price to seeing, in this case, the price is blood. The men around him are still blind. They still fight viciously among themselves. The white men watching do not see that IM can see. They don't notice his advantage because he is able to grasp that be

Some common words found in the essay are:
IM IM, Ellison's Invisible, battle royal, Blind Invisible, white society, Battle Royal, invisible im, black im, im im, Ralph Ellison's, battle royal tension, ten black fighting, white stripper, im black, battle im, pushed battle, five dollars,
Approximate Word count = 2294
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)