Introduction & Overview of King of the Bingo Game

This Study Guide consists of approximately 40 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of King of the Bingo Game.

Introduction & Overview of King of the Bingo Game

This Study Guide consists of approximately 40 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of King of the Bingo Game.
This section contains 232 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the King of the Bingo Game Study Guide

King of the Bingo Game Summary & Study Guide Description

King of the Bingo Game Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:

This detailed literature summary also contains Bibliography on King of the Bingo Game by Ralph Ellison.

Ralph Ellison's "King of the Bingo Game" was first published in the literary journal Tomorrow in November, 1944. The story is customarily examined as a prototype for Ellison's novel, Invisible Man, but the work was intended to stand on its own. The theme of alienation has been treated by many authors, but in "King of the Bingo Game," Ellison examines the specific alienation felt by blacks in the United States. The protagonist of the story, the Bingo King, is alone in the world and his isolation is further highlighted by the potential death of his wife, Laura, who is seriously ill.

Structurally, the story is complex, combining harsh realism with a dreamy surrealism in a way that approximates the mind of the Bingo King. The story also provides an interesting examination of a segment of the American population often ignored: the working-class blacks of the day who were new to urban life. The Bingo King is not an idealized character; Ellison gives him characteristics such as a backwoods cluelessness and inner yearnings he has trouble understanding and articulating. The story's conflict centers around one of the oldest themes in literature: a person's helplessness before the hand of fate and the individual's irrepressible desire to overcome that helplessness. In "King of the Bingo Game" Ellison provides an examination of this relationship with fate, and more specifically, a black man's confrontation with fate.

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This section contains 232 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the King of the Bingo Game Study Guide
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King of the Bingo Game from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.