Ellison and the Narrator

One of the first things I noticed while watching Ralph Ellison: An American Journey was how similar Ellison’s life was to the narrator’s in Invisible Man.  Both of them worked hard in school in order to better themselves.  The narrator had to go through the Battle Royale in order to get a scholarship to college, and while it was not very realistic, it was a good metaphor for how hard it could be for African-Americans to get it into college.  Ellison also experienced problems when applying to college. He wanted to go to Tuskegee and applied twice and was denied before finally getting a scholarship for music. But after a while, he started endangering his scholarship.  Unlike the narrator, he didn’t take an important white man to a controversial man’s house, but he did start spending less time on music and more time in the library reading and getting more and more interested in literature.

Like the narrator, Ellison chose to leave behind the university and head to New York for more opportunities and to get a job, although Ellison had more of a choice than the narrator did.  While in New York, both Ellison and the narrator meet people who influenced them and presented them with opportunities, but in very different ways. The narrator met Mr. Emerson who gave him a job at a paint factory and then he met Brother Jack.  Ellison met Langston Hughes and then Richard Wright. The movie referred to Invisible Man as a “fictionalized autobiography” and I agree.  Ellison took the basic facts from his life and gave them a slight twist and made them less fortunate.  While Ellison met other writers and artists who inspired and encouraged his work, the narrator met a man who took advantage of him and led him in the wrong direction.  And while Ellison and the narrator hid similar beginnings, they had very different endings with Ellison being an accomplished writer, and the narrator living in a hole for a long time.  It’s easy to see that Ellison was very fortunate with who he met in New York and how his life could be very different without that happening.

The King of the Bingo Game

Sorry about the formatting.  I can't get it to change for some reason.

One thing that really stood out to me while watching Ralph Ellison: An American Journey was one of the short stories that he wrote: The King of the Bingo Game.  Just hearing the summary was enough to draw me in, but combined with the clips from the video adaptation made me curious as to the whole story, so I read it.  In it, the unnamed main character is in a movie theatre thinking about how the characters on the screen can escape their problems while he can’t escape the fact that he is broke and his wife is sick.  He falls asleep and dreams that he is on a train track with a train about to hit him. When he jumps off to escape, the train follows him onto the streets of the town. He wakes up screaming in his seat.  After the movie, there is a bingo game. In order to have a higher chance of winning, the narrator has brought five cards, which was harder to keep track of, but it ends up paying off when he gets a bingo.  In order to win the jackpot of $36.90, he has to press a button to spin the wheel and it has to land on 00. The narrator knows the correct strategy is to press the button quickly, but as soon as he presses the button he can’t let go.  He compares the experience to being God. The bingo caller and the audience mock him and yell at him to hurry up, but he is drunk on the feeling of power. Eventually two guards come, and as the curtain is being lowered, they wrestle him away from the button.  The last thing he sees before blacking out is the wheel landing on 00.

In Native Son, Bigger is controlled by a series of events that end in Mary’s murder.  Bigger feels that he regains some of the control of his life when he writes the ransom letter because he feels like he has a plan and a way out.  He starts feeling powerful when he is walking down the street and no one around him knows what he did. In Invisible Man, the narrator is controlled by the letters that keep him running and then later he is controlled by the Brotherhood.  He feels he regains his control when he starts to follow his grandfather’s advice and “overcome 'em with yeses.”  In The King of the Bingo Game, the narrator is controlled by his lack of money and his need for it.  He needs money to help his wife and he has to resort to bingo games to try to get it.  He feels trapped and that is symbolized through his dream. The train is bearing down on him and all he can do is run, but it still follows him.  He finally gains some control as soon as he pushes that button. He realizes this and then can’t let go. He is finally in control of his life. If he just keeps pushing the button, he has the potential of winning that money.  As soon as he lets go, he loses that chance. So he just keeps holding it, at least until the choice is taken from him.