An unidentified hungry and broke protagonist impatiently sits in a cinema as he waits for the bingo game to begin. He originates from the south and now lives in the north. He has not been able to secure a job because he does not have a birth certificate. He decides to play the bingo game, hoping that he will win enough money to pay for the treatment of a woman named Laura. The paragraph introduces internal conflict because the protagonist fights to get hope in his society where he cannot have his own identity and develops racial conflicts.
For the protagonist to win the jackpot, he has to press a key linked to a spinning wheel. He has to release the button, and the wheel must stop at the double zero. The protagonist is aware that a quick and short press is a suitable strategy; however, he finds that he cannot release the button. As the protagonist is standing on the stage, forcing the wheel to continue spinning, he discovers that he feels empowered to control his destiny. He has a feeling that as long as he allows the wheel to continue spinning, Laura is safe. The protagonist believes that he is the King of the Bingo Game because he forgets his name.
Ellison does not give a protagonist a name; without the name, the protagonist can be any of the many African-Americans that traveled to the north during the “Great Migration” from the south. Even though the story is about an individual, the individual might represent a broader collective. The protagonist can be an African-American man. The story does not talk about race in an obvious way. However, the white dominating in the society is understood subtly through occasional comments, dreams, and metaphors from the protagonist. The protagonist remains subject to the unjust and unfair system.