THEME ANALYSIS HOOK Perseverance is a trait of success. CONTEXT Successful people, whether financially, academically, or in any human endeavor, need to overcome obstacles they have had to achieve their goals. T.A.G In Langston Hughes's poem, Mother to Son, and Matt De La Pena's short story, How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium, perseverance is conveyed in both pieces of writing as a trait to progress in their goals. In Matt De La Pena's short story, How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium, the main character's perseverance is portrayed as a way for the main character to climb the ranks of basketball and improve …show more content…
The main character's love of basketball leads him to discover Muni Gym. It is the best basketball gym in the city and has the best players. To be able to play there, the main character had to wake up every morning, persevere, and overcome procrastination to be able to wake up and go to the gym. On top of this, the Muni gym team members would not let him play a single game with them. Therefore, the main character had to persevere through insults, consistently show up, and prove to them that he is as skilled as anybody else on the court. This is especially highlighted when Dante forcefully took the main character's spot in a game. However, the main character stayed at the gym and got a spot back in the game, proving his …show more content…
The Muni gym setting in How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium taught the main character that he had to persevere to achieve the chance at getting to play on the team at Muni gym. He was getting roasted for his size, got physically thrown away, but he persevered and proved he can play ball like anyone else on the court. Mother to Son was a way for the mother to communicate the idea and trait of perseverance to her son through a series of metaphors reflecting her own life of hardship. Both works demonstrate the role of perseverance in life in order to achieve goals and overcome
A Comparative Theme Analysis Essay of “Mother to Son” and “How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium” Childhood and adolescence are viewed as times for growth and exploration. It is when young people learn to make decisions and overcome metaphorical roadblocks. Rarely, however, are these young people alone. Many children and teenagers have parents or parental figures they can turn to for advice. These older, wiser individuals serve as
Everyone wants to get better at something, but some want it more than others. In “How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium”, the narrator wants to get better at basketball, so he wakes up everyday at 4:30 to go with his dad to his work. Everyday, the narrator would wait 3 hours in his dad’s car until the gym opened, only to sit on the bench and watch the other men play basketball. Finally, one of the best players, Dante, tells the narrator
One of Nikki Grimes most moving stories, “Janelle Battle,” and Matt de la Pea’s short story, “Hoop Court,” both protagonists are able to believe in themselves to show their true strength and beauty. For Janelle, getting bullied and looked down on allows her to show the beauty she possesses on the inside, for the protagonist in Hoopp Court, he has to survive the criticism to earn his spot on the court. These two stories both show us that when someone is able to believe in themselves, they can achieve