In "Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison, what does the dancer represent? What's tattooed on her belly and why are they afraid to look? In what ways is the...

As part
of the evening's "entertainment," an exotic dancer takes to the stage. On her belly,
she sports a tattoo of the American flag. The symbolic significance of this is not hard to spot.
The exotic dancer with the tattoo represents what the young black boys cannot have. The American
dream, and all it represents, is not for them.

Furthermore, as the woman is
white, she's unavailable to the young black boys forced to participate in this tawdry spectacle.
This was a time and a place when racial mixing was considered taboo; many young black men who
were even suspected of looking at a white woman in a certain way were unceremoniously lynched.
That's why the boys in the story are so afraid to look.

The baying crowd of
white men treat the exotic dancer as little more than a piece of meat, an object for them to
leer at. By the same token, they look upon the narrator and the other young black boys as there
to provide amusement for them. The thought that the black boys, like the exotic
dancer,...