Ellison, Ralph (Vol. 26) - Edward Guereschi (essay date 1972)
Edward Guereschi (essay date 1972)
SOURCE: "Anticipations of Invisible Man: Ralph Ellison's 'King of the Bingo Game,'" in Negro American Literature Forum, Vol. 6, No. 4, Winter, 1972, pp. 122-24.
[In the following essay, Guereschi reveals stylistic and thematic parallels between "King of the Bingo Game" and Invisible Man.]
Many sources have been discovered for Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, ranging from Negro folk-tale to absurdist thought. What has not been sufficiently reparded is the writer's earlier short fiction. "King of the Bingo Game," in particular, provides a revealing comparison. It is his last work (published in 1944) before the appearance of the novel in 1952, and, like it, is concerned with similar ideas of identity, self-delusion, betrayal. Likewise, it develops his familiar techniques of sardonic humor, surrealism, and symbolic vision. The protagonist also has kinship with an early model. Nameless,...
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