Joe Louis: The Mighty Man

Joe Louis was one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time.  He changed the game and became a symbol for African-Americans everywhere. Louis's cultural impact not only spread throughout the US but also across the world. Maya Angelou shows readers through "Champion of the World" just how significant his win was for African-Americans. In the beginning of his career, many managers and sports commentators did not believe that Joe Louis would make it far because of his color, but obviously they were completely disillusioned.  Louis had 3 losses out of 72 games and held the title from 1937-1949, making him the longest heavyweight titleholder. This goes to show that what you look like shouldn't matter and shouldn't dictate whether you become successful or not. Maya Angelou explains to readers how Joe Louis paved the way for African-American rights because he the whites in America accepted him as a good boxer. Although she wrote her piece with verisimilitude, the emotion from the story still stays with the reader.  You can feel the anticipation and anxiousness of everyone listening to the match and you can imagine different generations of African-Americans gathered around a radio. "Champion of the World" gives us a deeper look into African-American culture and a first hand experience of what they faced during the times of segregation.

Straying from Tradition

Tradition is really important when it comes to certain things because it can help you connect with your culture better, but there is a downside to tradition too, it can also keep you in the past where gender roles are prevalent.  Traditional gender roles have played a huge role in society and the media because what they depict alters our view of what's normal and right although at times that is not true. Why is it that the media chooses to show the mother of the household in the kitchen cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry while the father lounges in the living room watching tv?  This is just one example of a traditional gender role.  We've come to believe that image and are told not to stray from it even though everyone in a household should have the same responsibilities.

Beneatha from A Raisin in the Sun chooses to stray from the traditional gender roles placed on her by Mama, Ruth, and Walter, but is immediately punished for being herself.  She tells Mama exactly what she thinks and is slapped because of her forward thinking views on society and God.  It's clear that she wants to move forward but can't because her family is subjecting her to the gender roles it deems normal. 

We have to ask ourselves if tradition is worth not progressing into the future because if we continue to stereotype both sexes then we will never be able to develop our society.

Materials Matter

There is so much wrong with today's society and just by looking at the internet I can tell that many people agree with me.  People seem to care only about what someone has and not what they are actually like. We look at celebrities and the first thing that we notice is what they are wearing-- or which brand name designer they are wearing. We look at who has the biggest engagement ring or who has the highest number of carats in it instead of what these celebrities are contributing to society. From a young age, it is drilled into us that money and socioeconomic status are very important to our futures. What most people don't realize is that society has always been judgmental of everything and everyone. Society has always told us that the happiest people are the ones with everything money can buy, but that's simply not true. 

We can see that materialism was prevalent in Gatsby's life due to the fact that he spent his entire life trying to make the maximum amount of money that he could.  Gatsby was so intoxicated by the idea of materialism and attaining everything that he wanted, that he only wanted Daisy just so he could say that he won her over and not because of his love for her. Obviously this worked for Gatsby because not only does he not end up with anyone by his side, he loses Daisy and more importantly his life.  

Thanksgiving "Thankfulness"

There are so many things that each person should be thankful for, but why has Thanksgiving become a day where you eat until you almost burst and wait for Black Friday? It seems as though people have forgotten the true meaning of Thanksgiving and are buying into the Thanksgiving that stores are creating for them.

During this time of year, people used to come together and spend time with their families, but now to spend time with each other they wait in line on Black Friday for the "best" deals of the year. But when does the Black Friday craze go too far? This year many popular retailers opened their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving day; Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Target are just a few retailers that opened at 8 pm on Thanksgiving Day.  People buy things just because there is a deal on the item and not because they actually need the product. Obviously, there are people who hate the idea of Black Friday on Thanksgiving because it's less time to spend with your family. But if we've already ruined the meaning of Thanksgiving then why is it a problem?

The attitude that "more is better" can be seen in the 1920's also.  The idea of having everything seemed too good to be true, so money was spent lavishly. Although times have changed and people have become more money conscious, there is still a sense of "more is better" or else why would people buy unnecessary things?

Past and Present Times

In the 1920's women were starting to get their own rights and freedoms in society because the roles of women were changing.  Women have had to work for their rights for so long, but during the '20's in America they were able to be depicted as strong and independent.  Although they were seen differently it was becoming accepted that women could do perfectly fine with out a man. Even though if they went out and had drinks they were described as "loose" women, which as we all know led to the era of the flappers.


The same concept is true nowadays, society accepts that women can live without someone of the opposite sex and they can be independent, but if they choose to live that sort of life then they are usually mocked and made fun of especially in the entertainment business. They are described as annoying and bossy even though it's inaccurate to generalize because no two people are alike.  It seems as though anything that a female does will be mocked or will be gossiped about, even though that way of thinking is backwards.  The advertisements that were focused on women during the 1920's is extremely similar to the ads that women in the 21st century face.  This is because they focus on what the ideal woman should be like and not what the everyday woman is like.  Most of the products that are from the 1920's advertise for weight-loss/gain or cigarettes (because "cool and stylish" people smoke cigarettes).  It's interesting to see how ads in our time use these techniques to try to get women to buy their products, just as they did in the '20's.


We need to eliminate these false views of women and make them equal to men once again.  We've become, as a society, more hateful towards female empowerment and that needs to change. Girls in developing countries are growing up with out the education that teaches them that females and males are equal, but in the US we have the information and the means of distributing the knowledge but we are not, for some reason, distributing it out to the youth of America.  We need to start teaching everyone that men and women are equal and they should share the same responsibilities. If I know this then why shouldn't everyone else?

Rules or Rebels

Do we need rules for every single thing in the world? A set guideline to follow when we're lost?  The rules of punctuation "provide" for us just that, but instead of helping us it's limiting us in an ever-changing society.  There is supposedly a set list of punctuation rules in the English language, but this is false; we pretend to know every single punctuation rule in the English language, but this is practically impossible-- there are too many.  We cannot continue this charade of pretending to know everything when it's clearly false.  The rules of punctuation are limiting and suffocating. We need to be able to express ourselves when we write. I'm not saying that we should get rid of every. single. punctuation. rule. ever. but we don't need half the comma rules that are in existence today. It seems pointless, to try to argue over something that probably will not change even though it needs to.  Also, we've changed these rules before and let them evolve in their respective societies.  Do you really think the English language hasn't evolved since 1066? Well, guess what, it has changed. So being opposed to changing the rules doesn't make sense at all, since they will eventually change to fit our society better. Always question the man, in this case it's punctuation.

Double-Takes

Don't you just hate it when something happens and it didn't go as expected? And you catch yourself asking whether what you just saw or read actually happened? That was what happened to me at the end of The Scarlet Letter.  I had to do a "double-take" because my reaction to completing it was "Wait, what? why?" Dimmesdale dies at the end. *spoiler alert* I should've put that at the beginning, but shame on you for slacking if you didn't know that!

This happens in everyday life too! A couple of weekends ago, the Saints vs Patriots game was on and until the last 5 seconds in the game, the Saints were leading. It was at the 5 second mark that a miracle shot was threw by Tom Brady and somehow it was caught and it was"legal" and they "beat" the best team in pro-football by 3 points.  This is another example of a time that I had to do a double-take, because it was just so ridiculous that a lucky shot actually caused a touchdown in the last 5 seconds of the game! Another time I had a double-take was just today while watching the MTV EMA's, I was watching to see who won the Worldwide Act and when they announced "Chris Lee" I was in shock. She wasn't a favorite and honestly everyone is confused as to how it happened, because there were 2 favorites and an underdog favorite! One Direction and Justin Bieber were the two favorites, but the Kpop group EXO (best artists ever, like seriously though) had an amazing shot at winning this year despite only having only been here for a year!  The only thought I had was "At least 1D or JBiebs didn't win!" I don't have anything against 1D, but they're not as talented as EXO and honestly who still likes Justin Bieber?! To me, double-takes are ridiculous and I absolutely hate them.  The Saints vs Patriots game could not have been helped but the ending to The Scarlet Letter could have been avoided.