Explain the motif of "blindness" in the short story "Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison.

s was
originally published as a short story.  Later, the author included the story as the first
chapter of his acclaimed book The Invisibile Man. The main character, a
young, unnamed black boy, narrates the story in first person.

The story takes
place in  the 1930s.  Segregation is the rule of the white mans world.  The narrators dying
grandfather describes race relations as a war that has not been won.  He also maintains that
the black struggle is the good fight. 

The dying grandfather tells the
narrators father that he feels like a traitor.  He has been whatever the white man wanted him to
be to get ahead.  The grandfathers advice is to make the white man feel that he is agreeable to
their wishes and agree em to death and destruction.

Blindness is a
recurring theme in the story.  Ellisons idea is that people avoid seeing and facing the truth. 
The narrator repeatedly mentions that people have the ability to...