What is the conflict in the King of the Bingo Game?

Initial Situation

The protagonist waits for the bingo game to begin.

The first few pages of the story serve as a prelude to the real action, namely, the bingo game. During this time, we learn the protagonist's situation, which is the "initial situation" that the story will attempt to resolve.

Conflict

The protagonist is playing bingo, and being a bit sneaky by using five bingo cards.

In the initial situation, we learn that the protagonist is a man who has been beaten down by the system. He can't get a job because he doesn't have a birth certificate, and without a job his only means of making money is the bingo game. When the game begins and we learn the protagonist is using five cards, it's the first point of real conflict in the story. The protagonist is fighting back – albeit it in a small way – against an unfair system.

Complication

BINGO! (Also known as the protagonist winning.)

The protagonist's tactic of using five cards works, and he is called up on stage. This complicates matters as it extends the story and brings us closer to the climax.

Climax

The King of the Bingo refuses to let go of the button.

This part of the story is climactic for its elements of rebirth and self-actualization. The protagonist is empowered as he holds the button controlling the spinning wheel and believes he can now control his own destiny. At about the same time, he also renounces his past by forgetting his name, the name that "had been given him by the white man who had owned this grandfather a long lost time ago down South" (66). He becomes King of the Bingo instead, simultaneously in control of the spinning wheel and beholden to it.

Suspense

Yes, he's still pressing the button.

Pressure continues to mount as the protagonist refuses to allow the wheel to stop spinning. The bingo caller and the audience become increasingly angry, and we are unclear as to how the situation will be resolved.

Denouement

Police officers arrive.

When the police show up, you know the story is coming to an end soon. The two police officers succeed in wresting the button from the protagonist. One of them smiles at the protagonist as the wheel comes to a rest at the double zero (the number it needs to land on in order for the protagonist to win the jackpot).

Conclusion

Weak once more.

As soon as the curtain comes down on the stage, the protagonist is struck on the head. The protagonist is now back to a position of weakness, right where he started. Almost like a spinning circle.

What happens in King of the Bingo Game?

While on the stage, the bingo caller, a white man, begins to make fun of the Bingo King, talking “jive” and sneering at his rural upbringing. The protagonist must push a button in order to make the bingo wheel spin; if the wheel stops on double-zero, he will win the jackpot of $36.90.

What is the climax of the King of the Bingo Game?

The climax of the story is of the protagonist spinning the wheel and at the same time he descends into an isolated state. "Then someone was laughing inside him and he realized that somehow he had forgotten his own name. It was a sad, lost feeling to lose your name, and a crazy thing to do.

What happens at the end of the King of the Bingo Game?

Eventually, he achieves bingo and is called up on stage to try his hand at winning the jackpot. In order to win the jackpot, our hero must press a button connected to a spinning wheel. If, after he releases the button, the wheel stops at the double zero, he wins the jackpot.

What does the wheel represent in the King of the Bingo Game?

The bingo wheel symbolizes fate, random luck, and chance. In theory, the outcome of spinning the bingo wheel should not be predetermined. The ability for anyone to win is what makes lotteries, gambling, and other games of chance compelling. In the story, the white man in charge of the game controls the wheel.