Analysis Of Champion The World By Maya Angelou Essay

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A big Lesson
Vivid recollections, significant observations, and impressive memories of the real, ordinary, and personal experience of childhood days are the strategies employed by Maya Angelou’s narration, “Champion the World”, and Amy Tan’s story, “Fish Cheek”, in order to create “the reader of the very pleasure”. Their essays are taking about “outsider” children in a culture predominantly white. Both stories are regarding the individuals wishing for being accepted by a group that they are not included in. The authors both use the same types of narration, starting their stories off with a powerful first sentence that draws the attention of the audience from the very beginning. Angelou’s narrative explains the racial differences between African …show more content…

Comparing with Tan’s story, Angelou’s narration composes of two stories, a story within in a story. Inside the story of what happened in the general store, there is a story about the Louise-Carnera fight. Not only does she recall evoking moments of her life but she also discloses the ironic situation that African Americans had in America in the 1930’s. Tan’s story provides a lesson in turning a negative into a positive. Tan looks back on the lesson that her mother taught her to accept and be proud of her heritage and culture. Angelou by her descriptions of everyone celebrating when Louis wins the fight, conveys the trill felt by the African Americans in the store. For Angelou, Joe Louis’ fight symbolized the struggle of African Americans to prove their worth in America. Angelou’s use of direct quotations makes her story seem as if the event was happening live; as each comment of the match occurs. In her story, Tan’s purpose is not only to amuse and entertain, but also to thank her mother in order to transmit her lesson to the reader. "Champion of the World" targets individuals who desire for someone to be proud of and someone to give them a name, whereas “Fish Cheek" is targeting an audience of adolescents struggling to figure out …show more content…

She says “Champion of the world. A black boy… He was the strongest man in the world”. At the end of her story, she adds “It would not do for a black man and his family to be caught on a lonely country road on a night when Joe Louis had proud that we were the strongest people in the world”. It means that by employing the irony device Angelou wants to tangibly convey her readers the fact that how African Americans are vulnerable: able to become world champions but not able to walk a country road at night, which can be considered as sarcasm. In addition, Angelou attempts to illustrate how the outcome of the fight influences the pride of her race. In order to bring this meaning to life, she tries to show that the assumption of African Americans in the store is “If Joe lost we were back in slavery…” and there was an ideological belief about the fight outcome among those people, “God Himself hated us”. Every sentence written in the opening paragraphs create a clear picture of an event of crucial importance for the people of Stamps, Arkansas who come across as an extended family sticking together to listen to the only radio for miles . With the help of these sentences, she clearly contributes to her readers to see how poor and deprived these people are. She uses the strategy of building up suspense in her account

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