Compare and Contrast: Flight Patterns and King of the Bingo Game Flight Patterns is a fictional story written by Sherman Alexie. King of the Bingo Game is a fictional story written by Ralph Ellison. The stories are circled around two men, and their struggle to justify their actions. They are dealing with personal struggles that make them consider what/why they are doing something. Therefore, the differences/similarities between the plot, character, and setting will be further examined. Plot Flight Patterns The introduction of the story was about a Native American from Spokane, Washington (Mays, 54). His name was William. He was married and had one small child. His issues began after he talked to his wife—who didn’t want him to go to work. As he was …show more content…
He wasn’t sure if they were as friendly as people out east—where he is from (584). Once he won the game he was afraid of not being able to fully win the money. So, he continued to justify his actions on not letting go of the button. No matter what the crowd or announcer was saying to him, he ignored them to do what he needed to do to win. No matter how much he tried to justify, he was afraid to lose the money. Character Flight Patterns The main character of the story was William. William was a Native American from Spokane, Washington (54). He was a business man, and he had a wife and child. They were both Native American, as well. His wife’s name was Marie, and his daughter’s name was Grace. The cab driver’s name was Fekadu, and he was from Ethiopia. King of the Bingo Game The main character was a man. His name was not mentioned in the story. There were other minor characters that were noted, but the names and further descriptions were not mentioned. However, he did speak about a woman named Laura, and why he needed to win the money (584). The entire story revolved around this man, and how he felt about bingo.
An emphasis on family is one of the central facets of Native American culture. There is a sense of community between Native American. Louise Erdrich, a Chippewa Indian herself, writes a gripping bildungsroman about a thirteen year old boy named Joe who experiences all forms of family on the Native American Reserve where he lives. He learns to deal with the challenges of a blood family, witnesses toxic family relationships, and experiences a family-like love from the members of the community. In her book, The Round House, Louise Erdrich depicts three definitions of the word family and shows how these relationships affect Joe’s development into an adult.
The Native Canadian culture revolves around the art of storytelling, and this natural gift is heredity. In Story of Starvation, by Marion Tuu’luq, she tells a tale of her childhood where she and her people go on a journey to find food. They are driven to the brink of starvation due to their lack of technology, and their practice of hunting for their own meals. Tuu’luq’s intense story shows the significance of the Native Canadian way of life, and the tough childhoods that many of them had to endure. Tuu’luq says in her story, “I am going to recount a story that I am sure I have told over and over again in the past” (Pg. 86). This repetition of the story shows the cultural impact of storytelling in the Aborigine community. This story truly does control Tuu’luq’s life, because she retells it in order to remember all that she had to face within her childhood in order to survive. The story is both a source of entertainment, and a source of historical prevalence in Tuu’luq’s life. Although, it was a horrid experience, she learns to cope with it and tell it in a way where the listener takes away the importance of remembering Native Canadian
In a Bill Moyer’s interview “Sherman Alexie on Living Outside Borders”, Moyer’s interviews Native American author and poet Sherman Alexie. In the Moyer’s and Company interview, Alexie shares his story about the struggles that he endured during his time on a Native American reservation located at Wellpinit, Washington. During the interview, Alexie goes in-depth about his conflicts that plagued the reservation. In an award-winning book by Sherman Alexie called “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, Alexie writes semi-autobiography that reveals his harsh life on the reservation through a fictional character named Arnold Spirit Junior. In Alexie’s semi-autobiography, Alexie shares his struggles of a poor and alcoholic family, the
After reading all of the stories I selected “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence, and “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell.
In the story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" by Sherman Alexie, points out the hardships of being a Native American back in the 20th century. These hardships were racism, alcoholism, poverty and isolation. The story takes place in the reservation and it is about a young Native American whom struggles in society because of his skin color, family's addictions and fights. The narrator moves to Seattle with his white girlfriend who he seems to have an odd relationship because they are constantly fighting. He becomes an alcoholic and moves back to the reservation after a break up with his girlfriend.
Lives for Native Americans on reservations have never quite been easy. There are many struggles that most outsiders are completely oblivious about. In her book The Roundhouse, Louise Erdrich brings those problems to light. She gives her readers a feel of what it is like to be Native American by illustrating the struggles through the life of Joe, a 13-year-old Native American boy living on a North Dakota reservation. This book explores an avenue of advocacy against social injustices. The most observable plight Joe suffers is figuring out how to deal with the injustice acted against his mother, which has caused strife within his entire family and within
The story starts out by explaining how the main character “William” is a Spokane Indian. But, not just a typical Indian. He didn’t live on the reservation or have any ties to any Indian Casino, instead he was his own man. William had a demanding job that made him travel quite a lot. He was away from his family too much and even though he enjoyed his job, he despised the fact that he had to be away from his wife and children so much.
While growing up Michael Dorris never encountered a Native American literary character that he could relate too, and being of Modoc Tribe of California descent, this was something that was very important to him. After graduating from Georgetown University, and earning a Master’s Degree at Yale, Dorris began to create these characters and ideas that he had longed for himself during childhood. He married his literary partner, Louise Erdrich, who was also of Native American descent. They had three children together, plus the three that Dorris had adopted, all of which were born on Native American reservations. All three of his adopted children suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. During a twenty year period before Dorris’ death, he published fourteen books and over one hundred articles. In 1987 he published his first novel “A Yellow Raft in Blue Water.”
Sherman J. Alexie, is a short story written in the first person focusing on two Native American Men who grew up together on a Reservation for Native Americans but have been estranged from each other since they were teenagers. Victor who is the narrator of this story is a young man who lost faith in his culture and its traditions, while Thomas our second main character is a deeply rooted traditional storyteller. In the beginning of the story Victor, our Native American narrator learns the death of his father. Jobless and penniless, his only wish is to go to Phoenix, Arizona and bring back his father’s ashes and belongings to the reservation in Spokane. The death of Victor’s father leads him and Thomas to a journey filled with childhood
Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" both attempt to provide their readers with the cruel truth regarding how it is typically human to express interest in cold-blooded acts. These two short stories discuss about people who see nothing wrong with promoting criminal behavior, but who eventually come to acknowledge the horrible position that the victim is in by experiencing it from a first-person perspective. Sanger Rainsford, and, respectively, Tessie Hutchinson are the central characters in these two stories and they are unable to complexly understand the situation that a victim is in until they actually realize that they are the victims.
There are three characters in the story. The protagonist and his wife are struggling with their life and emphasize the theme of hopelessness. The protagonist is a nameless African American who comes from the southern U.S. At the beginning of the story, he is watching a movie of a woman tied down to a bed. He tries to enjoy the movie, but Laura comes to his mind. Laura is the protagonist’s wife, as well as the incentive for the man to win the bingo game. The man is powerless and hopeless in the society, “he gets no birth certificate to get a job and Laura ‘bout to die’ cause they have no money for a doctor” (242). Thus, winning the bingo game is the only way he can pay a doctor to treat his sick wife. He must win the game because it is his only chance to save her. After he finds he gets all the bingo numbers correct, standing on the stage to spin the wheel to win the prize. He feels compelled to press the button because there is a voice in his mind: “who held the prize who was the king of bingo (246).” The man wants to be the king and overcomes all the difficulties in order to control his own life. He hopes to keep the bingo wheel whirling forever, only in this way Laura will be safe and he has the imagery that “if she is not safe, the wheel will cease
The narrator of Ralph Ellison’s “King of the Bingo Game” is a scared but fighting man. The protagonist of this story is an African American man. He is from Rocky Mont, North Carolina. In the story, his wife Laura is ill and will die if they are not able to take her to a doctor. He is playing a game of bingo in order to try to win the daily jackpot, so he can take Laura to the doctors. He gets bingo and is called up to the front to spin the wheel, but when he goes up to spin the wheel he is not able to let go of the button. He is having a hard time letting go of problems that are occurring in his life. Ralph Ellison’s “King of the Bingo Game” is about an African-American who is trying to cope with many different conflicts in his life throughout one bingo game.
Like a coin dropped between the cushions of a couch, traditional oral storytelling is a custom fading away in current American culture. For Native Americans, however, the practice of oral storytelling is still a tradition that carries culture and rich history over the course of generations. Three examples of traditional oral stories, “How Men and Women Got Together”, “Coyote’s Rabbit Chase”, and “Corn Mother”, demonstrate key differences in perspectives and values among diverse native tribes in America.
In the beginning of the story we are introduced to Nick, his father and uncle George who arrive to an Indian camp on an Island in Michigan. The Indians in the camp are not very privileged and they live in shanties. Nick, his father and uncle George are lead to a shanty were a young Indian woman is
In both stories, "The Rocking-Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence and "The Destructors" by Graham Greene we see the common theme of