Research Paper During the time of Lipsyte writing of “The Contender” in 1960s, it explains many of the influences to the author of the book. One of those influences was The Civil Rights Movement; it played a huge part influencing his writing due to the event happening during the time Lipsyte was writing (Cobb). At this time in history, African-Americans were viewed less than people and were treated poorly due to their skin color.
This is shown in the book where the character Alfred Brooks was constantly treated with suspicion due to his color, given less thought to when he dropped out of school, and had less trust than a white person would. Alfred was shown human suspicion of one another when his “friends” robbed the Epstein's grocery store. Even though he did tell the Epstein Brothers he didn’t help or was in anyway involved, their view of him changed from what little trust they had for him in the slightest to none at all. This begins his real understanding that even though he never did anything to wrong anyone and tries to avoid trouble as …show more content…
From the story, things can be concluded that Lipsyte did experience this himself or witness someone being treated in such way. Another influence Lipsyte had was from his own life. He was urged to do well in school and go to college and earn a degree, which he ultimately did. This especially is shown in the book, when Alfred has this urge to return to school after he started to get a feel of the street life. Also, Lipsyte joined beatboxing in 1964, which gave him some insight in the life of boxing (Billy) and was the inspiration for “The Contender”. In turn, Alfred was introduced to boxing and the lesson of not giving up (Muller). Joined with his own life, values, and experiences, “The Contender” plot has a semblance of parallelism to the events of his own life. Most notably, to what he envisioned would happen if he were to drop out of
This is shown in the book where the character Alfred Brooks was constantly treated with suspicion due to his color, given less thought to when he dropped out of school, and had less trust than a white person would. Alfred was shown human suspicion of one another when his “friends” robbed the Epstein's grocery store. Even though he did tell the Epstein Brothers he didn’t help or was in anyway involved, their view of him changed from what little trust they had for him in the slightest to none at all. This begins his real understanding that even though he never did anything to wrong anyone and tries to avoid trouble as …show more content…
From the story, things can be concluded that Lipsyte did experience this himself or witness someone being treated in such way. Another influence Lipsyte had was from his own life. He was urged to do well in school and go to college and earn a degree, which he ultimately did. This especially is shown in the book, when Alfred has this urge to return to school after he started to get a feel of the street life. Also, Lipsyte joined beatboxing in 1964, which gave him some insight in the life of boxing (Billy) and was the inspiration for “The Contender”. In turn, Alfred was introduced to boxing and the lesson of not giving up (Muller). Joined with his own life, values, and experiences, “The Contender” plot has a semblance of parallelism to the events of his own life. Most notably, to what he envisioned would happen if he were to drop out of