“In college it always helped to be a little different, especially if you wanted to play a leading role” (Ellison 178). Ralph Ellison explores stereotypes of multiple races and socioeconomic status to comment on racist America and its contribution to invisibility in Invisible Man. The narrator is constantly misunderstood in multiple situations depending on how you want him to be seen, whether as a southern black man, as a northern black man, as a traitor or as a leader. Ultimately the weight of stereotypes leaves such a scar on the narrator that he becomes what society expects of him and in the process loses his own idea of ​​himself. The narrator puts up his facade without realizing it, and it is only when he is mistaken for Rinehart that he recognizes his nature of pretending. This idea of ​​hiding behind a mask to please society at the cost of individuality fuels Ellison's critique of racism. He points out that classifying groups by race deprives individuals of identity and holds people back from interaction and originality. Battle Royal sets the precedent of white men abusing the black race for entertainment purposes and forcibly imposing stereotypes. The men of the community present at this “Battle Royale” are fully aware of the evening's entertainment as the narrator innocently believes he is being invited to give a speech; he remains oblivious to the fact that he and the other boys (and even a white woman) were invited only to be shamed and victimized. The community deliberately invited a poor young stripper to dance in front of black boys to capture their reactions to a naked white woman: “The Battle Royal encapsulates the drive towards the psychic and sexual emasculation of the black male and the confinement of his individual . .... in the center of the paper ...... learn that stereotypes and classifications lead to loss. Everyone who claims to want to advance the black race ends up using their ideology only to advance themselves and leave the minority at the bottom. Those who bow to the stereotypes of the black race are rewarded by the ruling class but degraded by it. In Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison communicates that invisibility only deteriorates a person's ability to make changes and influence society towards strength through the use of stereotypes. While the narrator's grandfather advises him to give in to stereotypes and become invisible in order to succeed, the narrator learns that subjecting himself to stereotypes leads him nowhere but to failure and destruction: "...the novel's disturbing and disheartening images suggest a persistent underlying concern with the dynamics of automatism and perception" (Selisker 571).