King of the Bingo Game

I recently read the short story “King of the Bingo Game” by Ralph Ellison and found it a very interesting tale. It was a very dark and dingy world in which to enter but that atmosphere fit the story well. I enjoyed the way in which Ellison really made everything feel alive. I think Ellison’s use of narrative voice and perspective throughout the story was its true strength. It served to convey the intensity of the hero’s plight and made all of the stories elements that much more vibrant. I saw some striking similarities to other authors I have read before, notably Faulkner. I have never read Ellison before so don’t have a firm grasp on his writing style but from what I observed he used the point of view to really cement his story’s effectiveness with a few strengths and weaknesses.
Ellison uses a third-person limited perspective throughout the story and it creates a very unique effect. The reader is openly shown the thoughts of the hero (who remains nameless throughout) as they are happening and explanation of the thoughts is nonexistent. In other words the reader is left to piece together information and clues about the story from the protagonist’s thoughts alone. Ellison is not going to tell you what is going on he is just going show you what his hero is thinking. A good example of this comes right after our hero takes a large swig of whiskey,
“For Laura, though, he had to have faith. He studied the cards, each with its different numerals, punching the free center hole in each and spreading them neatly across his lap; and when the lights faded he sat slouched in his seat so that he could look from his cards to the bingo wheel with but a quick shifting of his eyes.” (Ellison 294)
This passage tells the reader that the hero is obviously trying to accomplish a goal for Laura, whoever she may be, and that these cards play an important role in his plans which might have a dishonest bent to them, thus the shifty eyes. All of these things have to be deduced from the hero’s thoughts because they aren’t given directly. This use of perspective becomes the glue that holds “King of the Bingo Game” together and gives it its vigor.
This narrative choice serves to add a strong sense of realism to the story because it shows how someone’s thoughts might really look in reality instead of in a story. If somebody truly had the ability to hear peoples’ thoughts they would not receive orderly and detailed descriptions. They would hear a jumbled mess of murmurings, mutterings, and incomplete sentences. Only the owner of the thoughts would truly understand how all of the little fragments flying through his mind actually fit together. However, viewing things in this fashion creates a very new and interesting way of looking at things in a short story. This realistic effect is one of “King of the Bingo Game” ’s strengths.
The choice of perspective also brings other positive attributes because now that the reader is immersed in such a realistic way it serves to make the emotions and feelings of the hero all the more potent. For example after the hero begins to anger the audience with his extended pressing of the bingo button he begins to shout,
“‘Live, Laura, baby. I got holt of it now, sugar. Live!’
He screamed it, tears streaming down his face. ‘I got nobody but YOU!’
The screams tore from his very guts.” (Ellison 297)

Since the reader has been in the hero’s mind the entire story the emotion and meaning in this scene is much more impactful than a simple description of a person yelling on a stage would have ever been. The reader has constantly seen the hero’s desperate thoughts concerning Laura’s well being and so this scene shows his desperate love and hope in an extremely vivid fashion because of the viewpoint throughout the story.
This effect shows up numerous times in the story. It conveys the hero’s desperation in the bleak world around him, his hope in the bingo cards, his love for Laura, his hate for the crowd, and even his relief when he sees he won the bingo game despite the fact that he wont ever get his reward. All of these extremely emotional points in the story are given their magnitude and vivacity because of Ellison’s perspective choice. It shows the hero’s thoughts as they are being formed and put into action because of the emotions he is experiencing.
Ellison’s narrative voice in the King of the Bingo Game reminded me of some other works I have read. In particular I found the story similar in style to a lot of Faulkner’s works. Faulkner is a big fan of exposing the reader to the minds of his characters and I noticed some striking similarities between him and Ellison. Although Faulkner commonly uses first person in most of his works he seems to always present the reader with the minds of his characters and leave the interpretation of what happens up to the reader. He is a very brutal author in the fact that he does not leave many direct clues, if any, about what is happening. I found Ellison’s technique very similar. He showed the readers the mind of his character and left the majority of everything else up to the interpretation of the reader. I feel that the perspective use by both authors in their works, although my experience with Ellison is limited, is definitely one of their writing strengths. The fact that Ellison work caused me to think of his similarity to Faulkner raised my opinion of him as an author and I think his unique attempt should be acknowledged for its cleverness.
Although I enjoyed King of the Bingo Game and think that its narrative style is its strength, I also found that exact thing to be its only negative point, if any. This raw viewpoint into the hero’s mind brings with it confusion and a sense of chaos to the narrative that can be difficult to follow. At one point the protagonist is watching a film and then something happens quickly and he is walking by train tracks and white people begin laughing at him and he begins screaming and running. Passages like this where things change quickly and confusingly make the story as a whole a bit difficult to follow. If you pay close attention you can eventually figure out what is going on but to do this you have to view what you are reading as naked thoughts and not simple narrative. In the previously mentioned example the reader is able to eventually deduce that the hero is having some kind of nightmare. Once this has been deduced and understood then Ellison’s cleverness is seen. He managed to show the reader how a dream would look if you were looking into someone’s thoughts. That shift in a person’s mind would obviously be a bit confusing. Ellison definitely manages to convey the confusion and randomness of a dream in his protagonist’s mind. The story’s chaos is a weak point but that is understandably unavoidable due to the perspective choice by Ellison.
The narrative style in King of the Bingo Game gives the reader a fresh look on a situation. It helps make the hero’s bleak world seem all the more dangerous and forlorn which add to its realism. This point of view also serves to magnify all the emotions and tensions that occur with the hero throughout the story. It also brings up the thought provoking idea of how a person’s thoughts would be organized in actuality. They would not simply appear as a neat list of details and explanations and mental footnotes. This perspective use also gives Ellison some comparison to other authors who have used similar techniques for success in literature, like Faulkner. With that choice however comes confusing and chaotic narrative which is a price worth paying. Ellison’s unique perspective ultimately serves to make his entire story’s emotions, characters, and events feel very alive and express their significance in a powerful and unique style.