King Of The World Sparknotes

882 Words2 Pages

Never judge a book by its cover.
Looking at the title, King of the World, with its photograph of Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr./Muhammad Ali, I assumed it was a biography. It isn't. Jumping to my next conclusion I thought it was a book about the "sweet science;" it isn't. Okay, maybe it's a tell-all about the seamy side of the boxing 'business.' It's not.
This book is actually about all of these things but much, much more. Rather than write a biography, David Remnick has given us a moment in time. King of the World covers three years in the life of Clay/Ali, but more importantly it covers the political climate in the United States, including the belief system held by the majority of the public regarding African Americans during the …show more content…

Remnick passes this information on not to make us uncomfortable, but simply to show us what it was like 35 years ago for black American citizens. Remnick was simply saying the vast majority of people, both black and white, bought into the idea of what a 'good black man' was supposed to be and do.
Which, of course, leads us to the main focus in King of the World, Clay/Ali. If the public, as well as the press, thought Liston wasn't an ideal role model for a heavyweight champion boxer, they had no idea what was in store for them with Clay. He was the bold, brash, brazen kid, just 20 when he was moving up to the top of the division and slated to fight for the title in February of 1964, shortly after his 22nd birthday. (I'd give my eye teeth to see how people decided who to root for when Clay and Liston fought; surely they both had detractors because of their non-compliant attitudes!)
The bout with Liston started Clay/Ali on his journey to fame, wealth and, more importantly, a place in America's political history. Despite his brashness, his antics and his very bad poems, Ali is now, finally, a hero to millions in a time when there are too few heroes and sheroes in evidence. It was his stance outside the ring that gave him a place of honour in America's sociopolitical history, and will continue to do so, hopefully, for

Show More
Related

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of Randy Roberts's Article Summary

    1219 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author then mentions many industry concerns about blacks being enthusiastic to enter into boxing due to the triumph of Johnson, which would result in a shortage of laborers. On the other hand, Jim Nasium, a black writer counseled many young blacks to take up boxing as a serious profession. He believed that it is the boxing ring where blacks could face whites on an equal basis. There were many reports

    Read More

  • Ap World History Chapter 7 Summary

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Minoans society wasn't really an economic social society. In the archeological records, we find that the houses "poorer" parts of their towns were rather large and plush. Women were regarded rather highly in their society, many of their paintings are depictions of women. There is little evidence that they were war like, nor did they appear to go on military expeditions. This comes from the lack of weapons in the burial sites, there aren't any warrior tombs, nor are there paintings of war; which is something that was dominant in all other cultures at the time. They were mostly traders, as in merchants. They traded throughout Greece, Ionia, the Levant and Egypt. Their cities weren't strategically located, meaning

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The 1910 Jeffries-Johnson Fight And Its Impact

    1235 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The 1910 Jeffries-Johnson Fight and Its Impact” was by far my favorite reading from the text this semester, which is the main reason for my choosing of this topic. Throughout this article, I found it to be incredibly intriguing how detailed it was on the struggles that Johnson went through. Discussing the difficult experiences he had as a rising black athlete and then to end up with a white woman who, to many, could or could not have been considered a prostitute. All of the events during Johnson’s life make him such an amazing person and a very interesting athlete to learn more about.

    Read More

  • Significant Role of the Hippocampus

    1158 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hippocampus is a small, curved region, which exists in both hemispheres of the brain and plays a vital role in emotions, learning and acquisition of new information. It also contributes majorly to long term memory, which is permanent information stored in the brain. Although long term memory is the last information that can be forgotten, its impairment has become very common nowadays. The dysfunction is exemplified by many neurological disorders such as amnesia. There are two types of amnesia, anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde amnesia is inability in forming new information, while retrograde refers to the loss of the past memory. As suggested by Cipolotti and Bird (2006), hippocampus’s lesions are responsible for both types of amnesia. According to multiple trace theory, the author suggests that hippocampal region plays a major role in effective retrieving of episodic memory (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). For example, patients with hippocampal damage show extensively ungraded retrograde amnesia (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). They have a difficult time in retrieving information from their non-personal episodic events and autobiographical memory. However, this theory conflicts with standard model of consolidation. The difference between these theories suggests that researchers need to do more work to solve this controversy. Besides retrieving information, hippocampus is also important in obtaining new semantic information, as well as familiarity and recollection (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). For instance, hippocampal amnesic patient V.C shows in ability to acquire new semantic knowledge such as vocabularies and factual concepts (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). He is also unable to recognize and recall even...

    Read More

  • The Black Hand Analysis

    2390 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Black Hand by Chris Blatchford is a biography about Rene “Boxer” Enriquez, an East Los Angeles native and former Mexican Mafia member. The gang also known as Le Eme, or “M” in Spanish, the Mexican Mafia is out to be one of the strongest gangs in American history. The gang was established in city of Los Angeles, as well as other smaller gangs such as the well known MS-13, and Florencia-13, which are brought up and mentioned in the book on how Boxer relates to them. Even though the Mexican Mafia was not originated in Mexico, a lot of it roots and thoughts tie back from Mexico. This biography describes in depth the life of Enriquez from being just adolescence stealing fire crackers; up through the present day; an ex Mexican mafia member. Now that he is out of the gang life, he is retelling his story as a normal citizen, trying to warn others about the risks. As well as trying to get the picture through to young kids that it’s not all about getting woman, money and cars. He is trying to help others by retelling his story so they can learn from his mistakes.

    Read More

  • MLK- A Life

    762 Words  | 2 Pages

    This book was intriguing, fascinating, and balanced with a unique writing style. It’s a book that highlights every important aspect in Kings life, especially his work with the ministry, his vision of racial progress, and the important person he became. After reading this book I have come to the conclusion that the purpose for writing this biography was to convey the truth. To tell the truth of what actually happened in MLKs life from a fair point of view. From someone who would not judge or show bias in their writing toward King.

    Read More

  • The Symbolism Of Boxing In The Twentieth Century

    300 Words  | 1 Pages

    According to Jim Foglio, the main author of "Beyond the Golden Smile: Jack Johnson and Class", a history teacher and Education at the community college of Aurora and Metropolitan State university of Denver, the white race was protecting their masculinity by preventing any colored person from being the heavyweight champion. But, Jack Johnson refused to be discriminated against. He fought all the black boxers as well as the white boxers and went as far as achieving the heavyweight championship . Jack Johnson broke the color line in sports in the twentieth century. Boxing history has transcended social structure, sports culture and racial inequality. The article, “Jack: Great Moments in Black History No.VIII” is important to history and present day because it assures racial equality, hope to people of color to achieve the American dream and establish a sense of equality in the sports

    Read More

  • Separation And Freedom In Malcolm X, By Alex Haley

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book, Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley, tells the story of an African American who lived in America, where the society has been become a supremacy by the white man and shows how that African society has been oppressed like the other races such as the asians, caucasian, mexican but not as prominent like the African Americans population and that there has been movements to change the society as a whole but the movement has not been resolved which leads to civil unrest and systemic oppression until the one man, who brought the truth and sought change for the society in America and led to nationwide concern for them. This book, this one story is a tale of his life. Within the book, Malcolm X, there are key ideas such as systemic oppression,

    Read More

  • Michael Mann's Film Ali

    2425 Words  | 5 Pages

    [3] I agree with the reviewers: the central problem or issue in Ali is the portrayal of Cassius Clay/Cassius X/Muhammad Ali as a very soft, non-threatening, and almost perfect man. It is almost if Will Smith is wearing a halo throughout the movie and can do no wrong. But, by looking at film clips, newspaper articles, and other "real" historical sources, I found a very different man. There was an Ali that was feared by mainstream and white America; there was an Ali that said racially controversial -- and flat-out racist -- things. Mann steers away from these parts of Muhammad Ali and presents the viewer with a diplomatic figure. Mann also neglects Ali's flaws. Basically, Mann puts limits on what he will show of Ali, and by doing so, revises Ali's story into a fairytale-like drama and sells the viewer an action-figure version of a very complicated man.

    Read More

  • Are Violent Video Games a Cause of the Bad Behavior in Children?

    984 Words  | 2 Pages

    The allegation that videogames cause violent behavior in children has been present as long as videogames themselves. Some researchers said that the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, was one intense gamer. “Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech Shooter was seen by his roomates as odd because he never joined them in video games.”(Beresin) This debate will continue to go on in this country as long as there are horrific crimes that occur. There is much written in the research regarding this issue, and many differing views. The research that is presented in the next few paragraphs supports the theory that it is not the graphic video games that produce aggressive behavior, but other factors in a child’s life that create violent actions.

    Read More

  • Muhammad Ali

    1608 Words  | 4 Pages

    Muhammad Ali was a man made to box. He had a great career before him since he made his first professional fight under President Eisenhower presidency. His Professional Career was really impressive. His had a great balance and was able to move his hands and feet in great speed and coordination. Ali was said to dance in the ring while destroying his opponents. Ali started fighting at a very short age, and his first teacher was Joe Martin (Hauser 18). Through hard work and discipline, he became a professional fighter and eventually the Heavyweight champion of the world. Although he lost the title twice, he regained it three times, putting him in the history books. His boxing career was put to an end when he started suffering from Parkinson's disease. This was the end of his boxing, but his greatness will never die.

    Read More

  • The Video Game Industry’s Rating System

    1629 Words  | 4 Pages

    The early 1990s brought with it increases in technology and violent video games emerged with “person-on-person violence” which include games such as two graphic fighting games, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter and a first-person-shooter zombie infestation game called Doom. By this time, youth violence had dramatically increased and peaked to one of the highest levels on record and various groups of school shootings shocked the United States. The more drastic response to this was the belief that video games were training young children to become murderers by simply playing these violent video games (Ferguson). In view of consumers’ violent nature, the vast majority of research concerning video games has focused on “the way game play impacts anti-social behavior” (Tear). The video game industry was aware of this issue and had to improvise quickly on a solution or there would have been a noticeable decrease in sales. Parents were and still are ...

    Read More

  • Violent Video Games and Bad Behavior

    1537 Words  | 4 Pages

    At this day in age we bask in the luxury of having easy access to advanced technology at our disposal. From the World Wide Web, to cell phones, music, movies and video games the human race has thought of any and everything to keep us entertained. Over the years studies have shown reasonable concerns regarding the long-term effects of video games. These games can desensitize gamers to real life violence, which is usually seen in the younger crowd. The studies especially hit on the games containing player-on-player violence. Though these games are extremely entertaining and can get kids to settle down for a while, if not properly supervised, they can produce adverse effects. Other studies have shown that video games can be used as way to yield positive outcomes such as, good problem solving skills, cooperation in a group and the ability to flow. Although there has been psychological research on children learning through the actions of others some believe that children are automatically able to distinguish between what is just a game and what is reality. The longer they are allowed on their game system the more they become convinced that their games are real. Some researchers believe violent video games can channel the aggression of the child but the parents are to blame for what happens to the child after playing an excessive amount over a period of time. Children can become preoccupied with these violent video games which have been proven to be the cause of poor social skills, uncontrollable aggression and a false reality.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Video Game Industry

    1458 Words  | 3 Pages

    Due to the availability of news and media in today’s technologically advanced society, many people are aware of the violent acts that are committed every day all throughout the world. In addition, the technological advances of today’s society have continued to fuel one of the most successful industries of the present day: the video game industry. Many people have been eager to blame the video game industry for the violent acts that are committed throughout the world because the video game industry has continued to target an audience that seemingly craves an increasing amount of violence, and they criticize the video game industry for its complete lack of restrictions on the sale of violent video games to teenagers. However, although some experts believe that playing violent video games may perpetuate a violent disposition in a teenager, it has been demonstrated that

    Read More

  • Effect of Video Game Violence on Children and Teens

    1699 Words  | 4 Pages

    Violent video games can lead to aggressive and violent behavior in children and adolescents. “Violent media increase aggression by teaching observers how to aggress, by priming aggressive cognition (including previously learned aggressive scripts and aggressive perceptual schemata), by increasing arousal, or by creating an aggressive state” (Anderson and Bushman 355). As more children are becoming exposed violence in video games in the recent years, violence in schools and other locations where children are prominent has increased. “A national crime victimization survey compiled and maintained by the United States Department of Justice, shows that overall crime rates in United States society have fallen. Simultaneously, school- based studies reveal that many violent behaviors have increased among children and adolescents” (“Causes of School Violence” 1). Exposure to violence in video games can lead to aggressive behavior, desensitization, and an increase in crimes committed by children and teens in our society.

    Read More

More about King Of The World Sparknotes

Open Document