What is the overall meaning of "Battle Royal" as a story?

"The Battle Royal" is an initiation story which deals with
the main theme of self-discovery.  Through the humiliating
fight and speech, the naive narrator begins to glimpse his lack of identity both in the
white society and his all-black college.  Another theme is the individual
versus the group, as neither of these groups will see the narrator for
who he really is; instead, they will use and manipulate him for their own
ends.

Other motifs support the theme of self-discovery,
namely vision.  The story is the first chapter in a larger,
picaresque novel entitled The Invisible Man.  During the fight the
narrator is blindfolded with white cloth, symbolic of how the white town's business
leaders want him to see the world: through white eyes.

Also
important is the grandfather's vision and haunting words, which reflect the theme of
appearance versus reality and the importance of the slave
generation.  The narrator had thought his grandfather a meek, submissive house negro,
but his laughter and words prove he was a traitor to both races.  His words will echo
throughout the novel, stressing the importance of words, speech, and
rhetoric.  Like the narrator, we will not know whose words to trust on
his blind journey toward self-discovery.