“Battle Royal” is constructed on the phenomenon of a spectacle. Why did Ellison construct the story this way? What notions of race does he want the reader to draw from the spectacle?

A spectacle can be defined as "something exhibited to view as unusual, notable, or entertaining." A spectacle also emphasizes the need to be an eye-catching or dramatic public display. Readers can't know for sure why Ellison decided to construct this particular event this way, but I do think a major goal of his was to make the Battle Royal scene as viscerally repulsive to readers as possible. The entire narrative sequence is a spectacle because it is presenting to readers events that are quite eye-catching and unusual. Additionally, those events are intended to be an entertaining public display to the white men attending. Different readers are likely to draw different "notions of race" from this story, but I think one message that is being shown to readers is how the rich white men believe that everyone is subservient to them. This is illustrated through their racism against the black boys and their sexism against the naked woman. Both the boys and the women are completely humiliated and taken advantage of for the sheer entertainment of the white audience members. The boys are forced to fight each other, and the woman is forced to dance naked before the men while fending off their drunken groping.