Selena Mann English 201B Professor Patchell 29 February 2024 Misunderstood In My Own Society Everyday life for African Americans in the 1940’s was far less than ideal. From poverty to racism, African Americans had to fight and struggle everyday for a less than even chance at surviving. The North, predominantly white, was worse than the South, predominantly black, however, the North was favored for its opportunity. Throughout Ralph Ellison's “King of The Bingo Game” we watch as the main protagonist of the story struggles to find his luck as a black man from the South, looking for an opportunity in the North. This was all in hopes of saving his terminally ill pregnant wife. Ellison expresses that humans can not change their destiny through the …show more content…
He felt a certain power”(59). The power he felt was control. For the first time in his life, the protagonist felt he had control over the outcome. The wheel symbolizes fate, luck, and chance. Furthermore, the protagonist gets in the way of his destiny by not letting go of the button. The wheel was his one chance and it was up to fate whether he would win or not, but the protagonist took control and lost his chance. The overall theme of the story “King of The Bingo Game” is destiny. This is shown through the man trying to hold onto the button in hopes that it changes his destiny. The man even believed it was God who was in control of the wheel, but in reality he was stopping God from being able to take control. The “This is God”! This is the real, truly God! He said aloud, ‘This is God!’ ”(58). By relying too much on himself, and not allowing destiny to take its course, he lost his only chance at saving his wife. At the end of the story, the button is taken from him and the wheel stops at the winning spot on the wheel. For a split second, he felt like a winner until he realized he wasn’t being treated as one. Ellison states “He only felt that dull pain exploding in his skull, and he knew even as it slipped out of him that his luck had run out on that