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

"" is part of 's novel
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."