Champions of The World and Fish Cheeks - Essay Example

Comparison: Champions of the World by Maya Angelou with Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan INTRODUCTION The literature which evolved during the colonial and post-colonial period extensively portrayed the world divided into two halves: one consisting of the whites and the other made of non-whites. However, the potent issue which found profound expressions both in a latent and potent ways into the literature of the period is the sense of isolation and staunch feeling of Diasporas of the minority groups posited amid the dominant Anglo culture. If the work of the writers from these minority groups is thoroughly introspected then the theme of isolation, a bizarre and a discrete feeling from the rest of the dominant culture pervades the text, they have yielded. Thematic dissection and a critical analysis of the text like, “Champions of The World” by Maya Angelou and “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan shall launch into a plethora of thought process that extensively deals with the feeling of alienation. The feeling of discrete as an individual from minority group is expressed on the matrix of narration and powerful description of the emotions taking place within the limited scope of time and space. A comparative analysis of the narrative structure of both the text shall therefore enable the readers to infer the strength of emotional paradigm upon which the theme of alienation operated and developed within these two texts. COMPARISON: CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD AND FISH CHEEKS In order to frame a comparative analysis of both the stories, it is quintessential to comprehend the background of both the stories and their authors. In the year 1969, Maya Angelou the renowned African American poet and writer quite recognizable by that time presented her autobiography entitled, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. The book generally focused on the early years of the author, her childhood and growing up in the town of Arkansas where her life centered round her older brother Bailey and her Grandmother. The nineteenth chapter of the book entitles, ‘ Champions of the World’ and the story focuses on the life in and around Uncle Willie’s store which was almost a place for community gathering and the victory of Joe Louis popularly known as the “Brown Bomber” is able to defend his heavyweight boxing title while fighting with his white competitor. This small incident also takes a poignant position in the life of the African American within the context of certain space and time finds intensive expression in the story (Angelou 1- 150). On the other hand, “Fish Cheeks” is a narrative of a very small length almost assuming the extent of an anecdote which first appeared ‘‘Seventeen” in the year 1987, a periodical for women and teenage girls. The story is again personal in nature and narrates the experience of the author while growing up in a different community and her story of falling in love with an American hunk who happens to be the minister’s son as well. When the power of narration and description is taken into consideration for both the text in order to express the sense of alienation, it appears to a great extent that Amy Tan within her limited scope of plot is more powerful with her description than the particular chapter from Angelou’s autobiography. Tan describes the emotional insecurity a Chinese girl undergoes when her well mannered American boy friend and their family is being invited at the Christmas party. Tan describes very subtly the parameters of a Chinese locale in America which might seem inferior and the places where it lacks American mannerism and Yankee sophistication, “What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?” (Tan, “Fish Cheeks”). Even the shame or the disappointment the minorities can have regarding their physical attributes which makes them identifiable amid the crowd making them fall apart from the rest of the populace evolves out in a stark manner at the very outset of the story . Amy begins the story thus: “I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond –haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose” (Tan, “Fish Cheeks”). The color of the skin, the color of the hair and the structure of the nose which a Chinese posses is quite different from the physical attributes of an anglicized person way marks a strong imprint on the psychology of a teenage girl growing up within a different community. Consequently, a tendency to ape the mannerism, style, food and lastly the physical attributes of the so thought superior white community is apparent and expressive (Tan, “Fish Cheeks”). On the other hand, the fight which was taking place between Louis and his white contender was being telecasted live over the radio. To listen to the live commentary of the game, the entire community gathered at Uncle Willie’s store. The sense of alienation gets ground when one minor individual is posited in a greater community of differently appearing people. Here in the story, “Champion of the World” a sense of race war engross the entire background. Here the Afro-American community feeling and their tendency and compulsion to get clustered and captivated mentally, socially and physically within their community gets more expression, “My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambushed and raped. A Black boy whipped and maimed. It was hounds on the trail of a man running through slimy swamps. It was a white woman slapping her maid for being forgetful” (Angelou, “Champion of the World”). CONCLUSION Thus after analyzing the narrative frame of both the stories, ‘Champion of the World’ and ‘Fish Cheeks’ it seems that both the stories tell about the pang and agony of being alienated from the rest of the society in which one grows and works. But the narrative of ‘Fish Cheeks’ instigates the bizarre feeling of an individual alienation, conversely, the story ‘Champion of the World’ narrates the feeling of a community more potently passing through a sense of stark alienation and becoming victim of racial violence and deprivation. Works Cited Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. United States: Ballantine Books, 2009.   Angelou, Maya. Champion of the World. Domain. Web. 13 May 2013. . Tan, Amy. Fish Cheeks. Lecture. Web. 13 May 2013. . Read More