In the essay Champion of the World, composed by poet and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou, it is an informative story about a boxing match between the African American Joe Louis and a white contender. This essay is a short story in which establishes how important this fight was, at the time, to the African American race. Angelou created this piece in the year of 1969, in which segregation amongst race was still ocurring throughout the streets of America. What can be noticed by the reader, is how she establishes a sense of exaggeration in paragraphs 16-17 and that their is a sense of obliqueness in paragraph 28. Maya angelou's tone depicted in her essay is that of being commmanding and confident. Initially, in paragraphs 16-17, Angelou writes these paragraphs with intended exaggeration to create a connection
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Throughout paragraph 16, Angelou describes many of the invidious situations that occured between the blacks and the whites, mainly leaving the blacks in moments of distress and resentment. Transitioning in paragraph 17, Angelou indicates how the loss of this match would mean that the interpretation of blacks being “lower types of human beings” would be considered true. Angelou felt that if Joe Louis lost this match, it would prove that blacks were in fact “stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty.” When writing this statement, Angelou uses the word "and" in a form of repition to fully exemplify what blacks were suggestedly known as, and to completely ensure her message is getting across. Even though the statements were not intended to be taken literally, Angelou used these statements to portray to readers, how forms of prejudice continued to occur and the harsh reality African Americans faced during this time period. When Angelou writes, "...God himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end."(17) she refers to the fact that to be hated by God himself, you must be living life of
Throughout paragraph 16, Angelou describes many of the invidious situations that occured between the blacks and the whites, mainly leaving the blacks in moments of distress and resentment. Transitioning in paragraph 17, Angelou indicates how the loss of this match would mean that the interpretation of blacks being “lower types of human beings” would be considered true. Angelou felt that if Joe Louis lost this match, it would prove that blacks were in fact “stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty.” When writing this statement, Angelou uses the word "and" in a form of repition to fully exemplify what blacks were suggestedly known as, and to completely ensure her message is getting across. Even though the statements were not intended to be taken literally, Angelou used these statements to portray to readers, how forms of prejudice continued to occur and the harsh reality African Americans faced during this time period. When Angelou writes, "...God himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end."(17) she refers to the fact that to be hated by God himself, you must be living life of