Bruce Brooks is often revered as one of the elite youth literature authors; Brooks was won the prestigious Newbery Honor from the American Literature Award. In this essay, Arthur Ashe, Brooks writes about the late Ashe, who died a few months before this essay was published, not only to honor him but to provide youth with an athlete who both excels at their sport as well as is intelligent.
Arthur Ashe was published in Boys Will Be which was a series of essays ranging from how to handle bullies to things that mothers will not understand (Curley). It is evident that the audience that Brooks was writing with adolescent boys as the first priority. Brooks’ writing style appeals to adolescent boys because the diction is not advanced, the sentence structure is not ornate, and the tone is direct and colloquial. This writing style is used throughout the essay, for instance Brooks writes, “Ashe leaves us with a good lesson: there is a place in sports for smart people.” The diction is very basic, and the message is as direct as possible; Brooks is pointing out the entire purpose of the essay in one sentence. For the audience there is no deciphering of complicated sentences with the risk of misinterpretation.
Although it is not known if Brooks knew Arthur Ashe personally, Brooks has stated that he enjoys all types of sports and Brooks was a teenager when Arthur Ashe was in his prime, so Ashe may have indirectly affected the author (Brooks, Bruce). Regardless, Brooks wrote about Arthur Ashe for several reasons.
If Brooks wants to inspire adolescent boys it essential for Brooks to select a successful person. No boy is inspired by a second string football player or a tennis player who consistently loses in the semifinals. No boy goes to a b...
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...Brooks’ uses the late Arthur Ashe as an example of an athlete who succeeded at their sport but was also very intellectual; all while honoring Arthur Ashe for his contributions to tennis and society in general.
Works Cited
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Curley, Suzanne. “Bullies, Baseball Caps, and Black History.” Latimes.com. 13 Feb. 1994. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.
“Life Story of Arthur Ashe.” ArthurAshe.org. Web. 13 Mar. 2010.
Vandergift, Kay E. “Learning about Bruce Brooks.” Young Adult Literature, Rutgers University. 22 Mar. 1996. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.
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Reuben, Paul P. PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. Chapter 10: James Baldwin (1924-1987). 3 November 2011. April 2012 .
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“Lee, Harper 1926-.” Concise Major 21 Century Writers. Ed. Tracey L. Matthews. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 2136-2140. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 15 Feb. 2011.
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Valvano, Jim. “Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award Acceptance Speech.” ESPY Awards. ESPN. New York, March 4, 1993. Speech. Online. http://www.jimmyv.org/about-us/remembering-jim/jimmy-v-espy-awards-speech/
Chris McCandless had a reputation for being overly ambitious since grade school. His teachers noticed at young age he was abnormally strong-willed which he coupled with intense idealism and strong physical endurance. In high school, Chris served as the captain of his cross country team asking them to treat each race as a spiritual experience. After graduating high school Chris continued on to college where he would graduate with a bachelor’s degree, doub...
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Smith , Earl. Race, Sport and the American Dream. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 2007.
The first African American to play Major League baseball once said, “a life is not important, except in the impact it has on other lives”; this was, of course, Jackie Robinson. Similar to Muhammad Ali, he faced problems head on a...
Harmon, William, William Flint Thrall, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
Miller, Patrick B. Wiggins, David K. Sport and the color line: Black athletes and Race relations in Twentieth-century America. 2004. The Journal of Southern History 70 (4) (Nov 2004): 990.
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