Nick Velasquez

Composition 4
English 1302
Fall 2016
Bingo Game Analysis
While dropping into Ralph Ellisons King of the Bingo Game, a freed African American
during the great migration has came to North Carolina for opportunities, and desperate for
money to survive and help keep Laura alive ends up attending a routine bingo game which takes
place in the 1940s when the social, political and economic situation is controlled by Caucasians
thus rendering a firm point of view of racial conflict. Throughout the story elements such as
metaphor, unique points of view revealing the characters thoughts, a historical setting, particular
conflicts arising from such a historical setting, symbolism being laid out to be interpreted, and a
variety of stylistic techniques such as foreshadowing help birth King of the Bingo Game in a
unique incarnation of a novel aimed at the human condition. This paper will seek to unfold the
writers techniques and a particular interpretation of meaning which overall helps in
understanding the movement of the novel and ideas therein.
The historical setting context is pinned in the 1940s, during a migration to the South of
many of the African American population. The main character thus comes into opposition to the
antagonists which is the Caucasian population in general but in particular a more localized
antagonist would be the bingo announcer who is sarcastic in many remarks, in regard to the
protagonist, Yessir, ladies and gentleman, hes one of the chosen people! after this un-authentic
remark by the announcer, the Caucasian crowd laughs and a slight distaste arises as the
connection is realized between the historical context and the antagonist characters playing within

such a context. The historical context of 1940s places the protagonist in a social game controlled
by Caucasians at the time who look down upon African-Americans simply for their appearance
in color.
In helping show the strange social conditions of the time, the author creates the story with
a third person point of view and too revealing the thoughts of the protagonist to aid in
understanding the themes of the story, All I would have to do is lean over and say, lady, gimme
a few of those peanuts please maam, and she would pass me the bag never thinking twice of it.
The protagonist is speaking of the South from which he came, but is now in a location which is
different therefore triggering him in new behaviors. Different behaviors within a different
context. He thus feels less at home and more in the realm of uncertainty. By the author showing
the thoughts of the protagonist, an understanding of the psychology of the individual is shown,
their inner thoughts, their inner movements, their inner personal psychology which sets up a
reflection onto the environment and helps comprehend this story in a new particular way
displaying the human condition at this particular time in the 1940s.
There are many conflicts which arise within the novel, one wall of conflict being the fact
he cannot find a job because he has no papers, thus he is out of money and finds himself playing
the bingo game; and the second wall of conflict being the African American inhabiting a
Caucasian society playing by their rules as stated above. These walls box him into his situation
playing the bingo game. The Caucasians as referred in the novel have a strong dislike and
socially pressure the protagonist into boxes but then actually physically demoralizes him, He
did not see the mans slow wink, nor see the bow-legged man behind him step clear of swiftly
descending curtain and set himself for a blow, he only felt the dull pain exploding in his skull,
and he knew even as it slipped out of him that his luck had run out on stage. This occurs at the

end of the novel, once we find out the true intentions of the Caucasian social and are left with an
unknown happening to the protagonist, is he dead or is he badly wounded?
The author engages devices, one being similes, He felt that he moved into some strange
mysterious power, yet is was familiar as the sun showing the high extent of the mysterious
power relating the feeling to the magnitude of the sun, therefore creating a overwhelming feeling
and feeling of a illumination with the power. Another simile arises to give stylistic texture to the
novel, The smell of peanuts stabbed him like a knife and he got up and found a seat in the
middle of the aisle. Here the peanuts smell takes the sensation of knife stabbing, giving the
impression of a sharp aromic smell daggering the senses and penetrating the psychology of who
ever reads the novel. In addition too, the whole story is a type of foreshowing, which is to say a
consistent build up, thus following a dramatic climax at the end, but the author hints and leads
the mystery of the novel into its future fruition by particular symbols which draw meaning-out
and gives us a premonition of the future. One of these premonition is sometimes a seemingly
random sentence such as, Yesterday hed seen a bedbug on a womans neck, which appears in
the story and can be interpreted as a foreshadowing effect for according to one interpretation,
Bugs denotes that some disgustingly complications will rise in your daily life. (Miller, 102)
And indeed the story leads to horrific complications for the protagonist being hit in the head at
the end of the novel. Other foreshadowing arises, Up the steps to the stage into a light so sharp
and bright that for a moment it blinded him, this can be interpreted with, A very bright light
often symbolizes the development of intuition or insight, (Ball, 334) and indeed the protagonist
is at the point of walking on stage and beginning to feel his power, he has the feeling of god
within him, he becomes the bingo king within himself and realizes his destiny before his eyes,
when he is holding the button with his finger, he feels his fate is in control. One last highly

important interpretation is the bingo wheel for there are many references in the novel, He felt
vaguely that his whole life was determined by the bingo wheel, and As the wheel increased its
speed it seemed to draw him more into its power, as though it held his fate. A profound
interpretation arises in relation to this, For Jung, the wheel is a potent symbol of the life force
and creativity energy, whilst for Buddhists and Hindus a wheel indicates universal truth.
(Cheung, 4,752) This is a critical insight, and a social and personal truth which ring clear, for the
protagonist is stuck within the social truth of the Caucasian population and cannot find his way
out, and displays his personal truth as a creative endeavor, for the wheel keeps spinning and
spinning and while he is in trance a social truth keeps him from fully recognizing his fate fully,
ultimately his fate becomes the Caucasian social fate.
Ralph Ellisons King of the Bingo Game displays the main themes of a Caucasian society
controlling African-Americans and even when African-Americans appear to be winning they still
end up losing, a truth which is set in the 1940s and shows the human condition and its extremes.

Work Cited
Ball, Pamela J. The A TO Z of Dream Interpretation. London: Arcturus, 2008. Print.
Francis-Cheung, Theresa. The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams: The Ultimate A-Z to
Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams. London: HarperElement, 2006. Print.
Miller, Gustavus Hindman. Dictionary of Dreams. Place of Publication Not Identified: Blaketon
Hall, 1985. Print.