King of the Bingo Game by Ralph Ellison
*King of the Bingo Game* is a short story by Ralph Ellison that explores themes of desperation, identity, and the struggle for agency in a racially charged society. The narrative follows a young Black man who has migrated from North Carolina to New York City, grappling with poverty and the illness of his wife, which heightens his urgency to win a bingo game to afford medical care. Set in a movie theater, the protagonist's experience is marked by his yearning for connection and the stark realities of his circumstances, including the frustration of lacking a birth certificate, which has hindered his ability to find work.
As the bingo game unfolds, the young man experiences a mixture of anxiety and empowerment when he wins and takes the stage. The blinding lights and the laughter of the audience amplify his feelings of confusion and isolation. His moment of control over the spinning wheel symbolizes a fleeting grasp on hope and self-determination. However, the crowd's impatience and the eventual intervention of authority figures serve to underline the harshness of his reality, culminating in a loss of both his agency and consciousness. Through this poignant narrative, Ellison captures the complexities of the African American experience in mid-20th century America, inviting readers to reflect on the intersection of race, socioeconomic status, and personal struggle.
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King of the Bingo Game by Ralph Ellison
First published: 1944
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of work: The mid-twentieth century
Locale: New York City
Principal Characters:
The protagonist , a young southern African AmericanThe announcer , the director of the bingo game
The Story
A young black man sits in a movie theater in New York waiting for the featured film to end. He has come to the big northern city from North Carolina but has been unable to find work because he does not have a birth certificate. His wife is ill, and he is hoping to win the bingo game that is played at the end of the feature so that he can take her to a doctor. He has not eaten all day, and the smell of the peanuts that another viewer is eating increases his hunger. Two men near him are drinking liquor, and he wishes that he had some, remembering how people used to share with one another down south. He drifts off to sleep but has a nightmare, which causes him to shout. The men who are drinking ask him to be quiet and offer him some whiskey, which he takes.
After the feature ends, the lights come on, a curtain hides the screen, and an announcer and an attendant come out to preside over the bingo game. Players who get "bingo" climb onto the stage and spin a large wheel by means of an electric switch. If the wheel stops at double zero, a player wins the jackpot, which is now $36.90. The young man plays five bingo cards, wins, and mounts the stage.
He finds being on stage confusing. The lights are blinding, he does not understand the jokes and comments of the announcer, and the crowd laughs at him. Even the smell of the announcer's hair oil unsettles him. As he presses the button that controls the wheel, he is drawn into its whirl of light and color. He realizes that so long as he presses the button that makes the wheel spin, he controls it—that he is the "King of the Bingo Game." So long as he keeps spinning the wheel, he controls his fate; his wife will be all right.
The young man's thoughts are unknown to the announcer and the audience, who grow impatient. The crowd wants him to finish his turn, and the announcer tells him that he is taking too long, but he brushes the man away, then calls him back and explains that he is going to show everyone how to win the bingo game. He shouts, urging his wife to live, and the audience, thinking him crazy, quiets for a moment, then begins to taunt him again.
Two men in uniform approach him from the side of the stage, wrestle him to the floor, and take the button and cable away from him. The wheel stops on double zero. One of the men signals to the other, who hits the young man on the head. Just before he loses consciousness, he realizes that his luck has ended.
Bibliography
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Hobson, Christopher Z. "Ralph Ellison, Juneteenth, and African American Prophecy." MFS: Modern Fiction Studies 51, no. 3 (2005): 617-647.
Jackson, Lawrence. Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002.
McSweeney, Kerry. "Invisible Man": Race and Identity. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988.
Nadel, Alan. "Ralph Ellison and the American Canon." American Literary History 13, no. 2 (2001): 393-404.
Porter, Horace A. Jazz Country: Ralph Ellison in America. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001.
Warren, Kenneth. So Black and Blue: Ralph Ellison and the Occasion of Criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Watts, Jerry Gafio. Heroism and the Black Intellectual: Ralph Ellison, Politics, and Afro-American Intellectual Life. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
Yuins, E. "Artful Juxtaposition on the Page: Memory Perception and Cubist Technique in Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association 119, no. 5 (October, 2004): 1247.