King of the Bingo Game

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Why does the narrator feel embarrassed during his interaction with the man with the microphone?

A) Because he is worried everyone will discover his secret plan

B) Because he is ashamed that he doesn’t speak the northern dialect

C) Because he is concerned he is making a fool of himself

D) Because he is frightened by the possibility of public speaking

2. After spinning the wheel on stage, the narrator observes that “[a]s the wheel increase[s] its speed it seem[s] to draw him more and more into its power, as though it h[olds] his fate; and with it c[omes] a deep need to submit, to whirl, to lose himself in its swirl of color. He c[an]not stop it now. So let it be” (Paragraph 19). Which of the following literary terms is used in this quote?

A) Palindrome

B) Parable

C) Paradox

D) Personification

3. Which of the following words best describes what the bingo wheel symbolizes?

A) Fear

B) Hatred

C) Fate

D) Harmony

4. Which of the following moments in the story best represents an example of Ellison’s use of the theme Invisible Man and African Americans Coming of Age Through Existential Crisis?

A) When the protagonist questions his name

B) When the man with the microphone mocks his hometown

C) When the old man offers him whiskey

D) When the protagonist spins the wheel

5. Which of these feelings do the white characters attempt to provoke in the protagonist by calling him “boy”?

A) Ageism

B) Compassion

C) Emasculation

D) Confidence

6. Which of the following sentences are implied by the end of the story?

A) That African Americans were on the cusp of change for civil rights

B) That healthcare will always be a costly endeavor

C) That institutionalized racism is a looming specter for people of color

D) That real change is possible only through hard work and compliance

7. Which of the following words best describes how the protagonist feels before starting the bingo game?

A) Determined

B) Reticent

C) Apathetic

D) Conflicted

8. As he listens to the instructions of the bingo game, the protagonists realizes that “[h]e fe[els] vaguely that his whole life was determined by the bingo wheel; not only that which w[ill] happen now that he [i]s at last before it, but all that had gone before, since his birth and his mother’s birth and the birth of his father. It had always been there, even though he had not been aware of it, handing out the unlucky cards and numbers of his days” (Paragraph 14). Which of the following phrases best summarizes the protagonist’s sentiment?

A) The fear of Jim Crow laws in the North

B) The connection of this moment to generational trauma

C) The desire to reverse his luck in gambling

D) The epiphany of his parents’ ill-fated life choices to their son

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What is the narration style in the story? Consider how this style interacts with the themes and the setting.

2. Who are the named characters in the story? Who are the unnamed characters?