Maya Angelou Syntax

In her narrative, titled “Champion of the World”, the nineteenth chapter of the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou recalls an incident of a heavyweight boxing match between an African American, Joe Louis, and a white contender. Angelou emphasizes the import of the match to the African American community to display the racism in this time period, the oppression people of color face, and the defeat they have to come to terms with whether they lose in one aspect of life or not. To achieve her purpose, Angelou uses dialogue, diction, and the the imbedding of a secondary narrative throughout the primary narrative. She creates parallelism through the use of repetition and utilizes short, staccato sentences to further emphasises her

In terms of syntax, she utilizes staccato sentences such as “My race groaned” and “It was our people falling” to draw attention to the text being relayed. This short syntactic detail contains more weight and allows the reader to feel the raw emotion of “one more [African American] woman being ambushed and raped” (89) and “a Black boy whipped and maimed” (89). The syntax of these sentences also mirrors the fight as it is being described in the paragraph above, where the announcer of the match relays it as it is going on in a similar fashion. The announcer reports that “[the other contender’s] got Louis against the ropes” (89) and “it’s a left to the body and a right to the ribs” (89). The fight is reported in a direct and choppy way, a way similar to that which is used to created the sentences in the next paragraph. The juxtaposition between the paragraphs is exhibited; the announcer is describing how Louis at that moment is losing and the paragraph immediately below it shows how his people were losing as well. Parallelism is also created with repetition when Angelou describes that as the boxing match continued and suspense ensued, the crowd watched on in a kind of unity: “We didn’t breathe. We didn’t hope. We waited” (90). This repetition illustrates the heavy importance of the match to the African Americans. Angelou cleverly once again emphasizes the import of the match by

In the beginning of the text, “the last inch of space was filled” (88) in the Store where the radio for the match was turned on, but “people continued to wedge themselves along the walls of the Store” (88). People are even “sweating and praying” (89) as they are listening to the fight. This displays the significance of the match to members of that community. Throughout the whole narrative, Angelou demonstrates that the African Americans are relying on Joe Louis to win the boxing match against a white contender. The crowd listening to the match heavily relies on a victory for Joe Louis in order for what they believe to be a victory for the whole community; Angelou exaggerates that if Joe lost they would be “back in slavery and beyond help” (90) and seen as “only a little higher than apes” (90). The importance is further displayed when Joe Louis finally wins the match and through similes, Angelou shows that people are drinking “Coca-Colas like ambrosia” (90) and eating “eating candy bars like Christmas” (90), featuring just how momentous the occasion is for them. Despite this, in the end of the narrative, a tragic irony is revealed, since “it wouldn’t do for a Black man and his family to be caught on a lonely country road on a night when Joe Louis proved that we were the strongest people in the world” (90). The African Americans are still not safe despite the astounding victory of Joe Louis