'Champion Of The World' By Maya Angelou

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Analysis of “Champion of the World" by Maya Angelou In the short story “Champion of the World”, Maya Angelou describes a very symbolic event that she remembers witnessing as a child. The event that Angelou describes is the boxing match between African American boxer, Joe Louis, and his white contender. Joe Louis was not only a seen as a hero by Maya Angelou but by most of the African American community and white Americans during the twentieth century. Maya Angelou includes many literary devices to enhance her story such as imagery, hyperbole, and symbolism. “Champion of the World” by Maya Angelou has great literary quality and the historical event depicted in it had a deep connection with a whole community. While reading Angelou’s short story …show more content…
Joe Louis was used a symbol for the whole African American community during his boxing match against a white contender. “Joe Louis had proved that we [African Americans] were the strongest people in the world,” (Angelou). According to Natasha Grant author of Clashes of Civilizations in the Boxing Ring, Joe Louis was also a symbol of American democracy because he insisted on having a rematch with his white contender to take back his heavyweight boxing title, which was ironic due to the fact that Blacks did not have the right to vote during this time period. (Grant) Angelou did not mention in her short story that this boxing match actually took place during WWII and Louis’s white contender was actually from Germany and many saw him as a “Nazi-symbol”. (Schwartz) This fact made Joe Louis and even bigger hero and iconic symbol throughout all of America because an American had defeated a German. “Louis' war-time patriotism in a racially divided country made him a symbol of national unity and purpose,” (Schwartz). Joe Louis was an iconic symbol of power not only to Maya Angelou and the African Americans in her short story but also white Americans. “By winning, he [Joe Louis] became white America’s first black hero,”
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