Comparing Randall Jarrell's 'Say Good-Bye To Big Daddy'

Remember that boy in high school that was the star of the basketball team? He still holds most of the records for the team. He scored more points than anyone else in the school’s history. He never studied much because he was an athlete. His basketball skills were going to take him places. But high school ended and there are no more games to be played. Where is that former all-star now? In his poem “Ex-Basketball Player,” John Updike examines the life of a former high school basketball star. Flick Webb was a local hero, and he loved basketball. He never studied much in school or learned a trade because he was a talented athlete. Now years later, the only job Flick can find is working at the local gas station. He used to be a star, but now

A. E. Housman was a well known poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Within his two most famous publications, A Shropshire Lad and Last Poems, Housman effectively uses his adept understanding of language, its usage, and style to portray the significant themes behind all of his poems. To an Athlete Dying Young is a perfect example of Housman’s ability to convey his message to the reader through his use of diction, syntax, and tone.

The strength less dead are the athletes whose “name died before the man”(20). Housman emphasizes through the imagery that it is better to do while one is still remembered since the glory will stay with him and not fade away. “To An Athlete Dying Young” glorifies the athlete through the use of imagery while “Ex-Basketball Player” uses it to emphasize the athlete’s fading glory.

Partly why Bigger is detached from himself is because of the sense of fight or flight that is ingrained into his personality. The racism from whites combined with his limited financial situation as a black man results in a fight or flight instinct that is as much a part of Bigger as his physical body is. Bigger describes the effect of the fight or flight instinct on life life as, “... the rhythms of his life: indifference and violence; periods of abstract brooding and periods of intense desire; moments of silence and moments of anger... Being like this was a need of his as deep as eating” (Wright 29).

Bigger is oppressed by racism in the 1930s. In the 1930s the color of a person’s skin defined them. Bigger being a black male defines him as a lesser man than a white man. People of color are reduced to live in the South Side of Chicago. Bigger, his mom, and two siblings live in a dirty

Within, ‘Big World' the unnamed narrator has an internal conflict in regards to his failures and of Biggies. The use of emotive language indicates that he thinks carefully on his ‘failures’ and which it leads to him considering to ‘kill himself’. The narrator decides to undertake a fulfilling and enriching getaway because he has always ‘ [Dreamt] of escaping’. The narrator thinks he is “Responsible, like [his] ghost work stopped [Biggie] from learning. In a way [he] ruined his chances” This indicates that he

Bigger, the boy looking for a new way that belongs to neither white people nor black people, gets blind when he faces the world with no way for him to go. He ignores the danger to find a new life by committing crimes, but finally realizes his blindness. As a black boy under white’s domination, Bigger also experiences discrimination towards black people, which fails to enfeeble the ambitious man to be insensible to the world. However, the reality strongly strikes his dream and asks him to fell on his knees. In his conversation with Max, he said, “I want to do things. But everything I wanted to do I

9/11 was a catastrophic event that has impacted the U.S and the world. Thousands of lives were lost in this attack on U.S soil. The U.S was filled with grief after this attack as they remembered the innocent lives lost. I think that we turn to music to help us get through difficult times because it allows us to unite as one and music is relatable. Music allows people to relate to the message and realize that they aren't alone. Music brings people together in a common goal and allows us to move on from tough situations. Music also can almost distract us from what is going on outside because sometimes when you listen to music you almost enter this bubble that blocks you from the outside world. I actually listen to Toby Keith's song a lot over my life as it is one of my mom's favorite songs. I think that his song is more appealing because it is written in a more upbeat tone than the Bruce Springsteen's song. Toby Keith's song makes me want to be proud to be an American and unite with my fellow citizens while Bruce Springsteen's song is almost more melancholy. I think that in a way that Toby Keith overlooks the bad side of what happened on that day because he wants to make Americans stand up and be proud while Bruce Springsteen is almost more realistic in my opinion and creates the idea of moving on and overcoming. Bruce Springsteen depicts a firefighter going up the tower almost like ascending from Earth to heaven.

According to Big Daddy, from a field hand, he rises to become an “overseer” of the plantation and then becomes the co-owner of the plantation and finally becomes a sole owner and manager of this rich piece of farmland. Therefore, Big Daddy represents a body of the people who arrive in the America with the hope of pursuing success and happiness and willing to work tirelessly to achieve their dreams in order to pursue the American Dream. Big Daddy’s success not only make him a successful individual but it also allows the rest of his family to live a comfortable living through wealth and prosperity and pursue their own dream comfortably. To elaborate, Big Daddy’s son Brick, a pro-football player and “still a pro-football player at the age of twenty-seven” has the opportunity to pursue his dream living on his father’s sweat and blood made farmland because he doesn’t have to worry about his earning since his father is already a multi-millionaire and able to provide with everything he will ever need. Brick knows that he is free and allowed to chase whatever the dream he has for himself without a worry because living on a rich farmland, Brick is aware that his father is able to back him up and his family with any sort of

When he brings Mary, his rich employers daughter to her room, he smothers her with a pillow her for fear that he will be discovered in her room. He knows that he has killed her by accident but automatically he thinks “She was dead and he had killed her. He was a murderer. A Negro Murderer, a black murderer” (95). Bigger goes on to say, “though he had killed her by accident, not once did he feel the need to tell himself that it had been an accident. He was black and he had been alone in a room where a white girl had been killed, therefore he had killed her” Bigger understands the world that he lives in deeply and knows that everyone will assume that he killed her on purpose. That he raped her. He does not even tell himself the truth because his truth is not considered reality by society. His truth is not important. Bigger becomes a criminal as a way to survive. He becomes exactly how white men and women see him: a rapist and a murderer. He begins to feel like he can only get out of his environment by murdering, and manipulating others. Bigger goes so far as to identify himself as a murderer capable of killing anyone who gets in his way. He goes as far as raping and killing Bessie, his

Bigger would go around with Gus, Jack, and G.H., and do nothing good for the community. The friends would either violently play pool in the pool room, or go steal from some other black people, because they thought it was okay to steal from their own race. His friends never thought it was wrong for them to not have jobs and just lay around bumming money off their parents, so Bigger didn’t either. Bigger is a villain for never speaking up and telling his friends what was right and wrong. He went along with them and was just as much in on it as everybody else.

How To Leave a Legacy To die young is an event that has always happened to people in this world. When people die young, it makes their friends and family think why they died young and how he or she could’ve used their life more wisely. In the poem, “To an Athlete Dying Young,” A.E. Housman uses the relationship between symbolism and double entendres about death and honor to display that dying young allows the dead to be remembered better than people who have passed away old, weary, and forgotten. Housman utilizes symbolism to prove that dying young after a great achievement will let people treasure the memory for longer. While the the athletes and townsmen are gathered in near the dead athlete, Housman writes about the “road all runners come,”(5),

Bigger’s murders were created because of his environment in which he grew up in but they represented much more than that. These murders gave him a unique identity, purpose, motivation and drive as means of self-expression. Although these acts landed him in prison, this explored violence enacted a new sense of feeling and self-worth for Bigger as it was liberating to him. It allowed him to feel alive and

4. The story recounted above has more to do with visiting “this friendly giant” than “aspirations and the resilience of the human spirit;” that is to say, it has less to do with pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps and more to do with the possibility of

Acting tough is the only escape for Bigger unless he wants to succumb to the despair he feels deep down. Being in a gang and putting on this act distracts Bigger from the disgust he possesses over his daily existence. Having robbed several black owned businesses, neither Bigger or his gang has ever even attempted to rob a white man’s store. White people were not looked upon as individual human beings by Bigger, but instead they were seen as the core of oppression for African Americans. Bigger has an abundance of built up fear over facing his white washed demons, so in an effort to destroy the robbery Bigger lashes out on one of his gang members. Having sabotaged the robbery, Bigger decides to go back and take the position as Mr. Dalton’s chauffeur.