King of the Bingo Game

Reading Check

1. Roasted peanuts (Paragraph 1)

2. A bedbug (Paragraph 3)

3. The prize is $36.90, and “the wheel must stop between the double zero.” (Paragraph 12)

4. “‘This is God!’” (Paragraph 23)

5. “The-man-who-pressed-the-button-who-held-the-prize-who-was-the-King-of-Bingo” (Paragraph 33)

Short Answer

1. After smelling the roasted peanuts, he remarks that in the South, he could ask for peanuts and people would be willing to give him some; however, in the North, if you “[a]sk somebody for something, […] they’d think you were crazy.” (Paragraph 1)

2. While watching the film, the protagonist falls asleep and has a nightmare of himself as a young boy running from a train. An old man wakes him up and scolds him for yelling during the movie. He then offers the protagonist a drink of whiskey. (Paragraphs 4-5)

3. The protagonist is eager to win bingo so he can win money to support his partner Laura’s medical bills. His initial strategy is to play with five cards so he can increase his chances of winning. (Paragraphs 7-8)

4. Although his original plan is to only press the button for a short moment, he realizes 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.