Open by Andre Agassi
Through the eyes of an eight year old, Andre Agassi shares his private life and background of becoming a world famous tennis player, in his autobiography Open from 2009. Already from the beginning Andre Agassi narrates about the family’s more or less tense relationship to each other and how the tennis player’s career is affected of his social heritage. This is the three main themes Andre Agassi gets around in his story about his early life.
First, Andre Agassi tells about the grandmother’s relationship with the father, the mother and himself. There is a continuously negative and tense tone, and it is easy that the narrator does not like his father’s mother. He even says, “I’m only eight, but I’ll drive her to the airport myself…” followed with the
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Søren Kierkegaard’s father was a dark and tough man, who made Søren Kierkegaard notice the darker sides of life. It inspired him to create the philosophy he had. This is a bit like Andre Agassi’s father who also is a part of the reason why Andre Agassi ends up being a famous tennis player. His father is very negative and pressures Andre Agassi a lot. Søren Kierkegaard’s father is just affecting Søren Kierkegaard by his own way of seeing life, not by pressure. Also the two famous males have two more passive mothers.
As a conclusion of Andre Agassi’s autobiography “Open” one can say that the relationships between the generations is not as good as it could be. The grandmother harasses her son and this son and father pressures Andre Agassi. The relationships are very negative in a lot of ways, but either way it ended up shaping the world famous tennis player. This is also how his life and career has been affected by his social heritage. But that might just be the message; diamonds are made under
The first passage reveals the parallel suffering occurring in the lives of different members of the family, which emphasizes the echoes between the sufferings of the father and the narrator. The narrator’s father’s despair over having watched
Junior’s father is a complex character. In the story, he is presented as a controlling, authoritative and dominant person, but sometimes in the story it seems that there is more about him. “When we are alone he treated me much better, like maybe I was
Throughout the years, sports have become a major part of society. Sports, a large percentage of the time, are a part of peoples’ lives in one way or another. Whether they participate in them or just enjoy watching them, sports are a big deal to the majority of people. There are also some individuals who have redefined the expectations when it comes to certain sports. For instance, Babe Ruth redefined the way people think about baseball, or Michael Jordan completely changing the game of basketball. But Joe Louis and Venus and Serena Williams have changed their games in a way no one could have imagined. Although “Champion of the World” by Maya Angelou and “Woman Who Hit Very Hard and How They’ve Changed Tennis” by Michael Kimmelman are different, they are similar in the ways they show how the respected athletes, Joe Louis and the Williams sisters, changed the game and were seen using symbolism in racial and sexual progression.
Winning the Girls 14s National Tennis Championships gave Natalia Kochkodan the chance to make a difference in the world and she jumped right onto that opportunity. In the 18 years that she has lived since the win, she has created a non for profit organization that assists disease stricken children in playing sports, has donated over 10 million dollars to several children’s charities including Ball For All and Project Fit
I began to sustain the illusion that he was I, and therefore, by simple transposition, I was my father”(White 2). One can gather that White's father is the idyllic parental figure ,and every kid dreams of having one. E.B. Whites father guided him through life and taught him how to create a tradition. He gave examples of what being there for a son means. Showing them how to bond with one another and cherish every moment. Plus he shows his son how to be a family man and how to spend time with your loved one’s. However, not every child has a father figure, as that in the one in “Once More to the Lake” , guiding and developing them into young men/ women.
The reader is almost forced to look at the actions of the grandmother as being similar to that of a young child. There's not a quiet moment with her around and she never sits still. The reader tends to have a negative perception of the grandmother due to these personality traits. However, these traits are expressed in a comical way causing the reader to be annoyed by the grandmother, but also entertained.
Starting with Kierkegaard, it is best to understand that he has a deep fulfillment to God and that he feels is the absolute. This absolute is to live in the realm of a paradox and that paradox is proving the existence of God and experiencing it for yourself. To understand this is to go through the different stages, of aesthetic, moral and religious. The aesthetic is all about the individual and focuses on oneself as an individual. The moral is having to be antagonistic towards yourself in
To better illustrate and understand the perspective of our present age as to that of Kierkegaard’s, we must first examine what Kierkegaard meant by these four phenomena which he claimed plagued his society in 1840’s Copenhagen. We will start by analyzing his concept of reflection. This reflection isn’t one of idleness which Kierkegaard shows praise towards but to that of overthinking. Through reflection, man overanalyzes situations before him to the point of driving the
A: The concept of race and social access have influenced who participate in a sport because according to the narrator of the film, “The Difference Between Us: Race- The Power of an illusion” even though “Racial differences are not necessarily discussed openly, they are often part of the careful calculation of competitive edge” of specific individuals. Therefore, the idea of race as biology is extremely constant on
The narrator is totally crushed by the gender discrimination. She longed to be seen by her mother and her grandma. The narrator is heartbroken that her mother loved her brother more than her and failed to notice her. “When she went into Nonso’s room to say good night, she always came out laughing that laugh. Most times, you pressed your palms to your ears to keep the sound out, and kept your palms pressed to your ears, even when she came into your room to say Good night, darling, sleep well. She never left your room with that laugh” (190). Her agony can be easily seen by the way of her narrating. She does not get the affection that she deserves. She really needs the affection from her own mother, but she is not getting it. She compares the love which her mother shows to his brother and herself. This is gender discrimination can be seen with her grandmother too. She hated her grandma as she would always support her brother and find fault with her. Even though what the brother did, no matter what crime. Her mother and grandmother always supported her brother and never supported or showed interest towards
Black excellence; a term that is possibly defined as the recognition and celebration of the successes of the black community. Lacking from the definition is the idea that black excellence cannot be achieved without understanding its relation to apparent racist perpetrations. In the essay entitled “The Meaning of Serena Williams”, author Claudia Rankine states, “the notable difference between black excellence and white excellence is white excellence is achieved without having to battle racism. Imagine.” The prevalent absurdity exuded by this statement is the unfortunate reality we now inhabit.
Throughout our lives we're influenced by many. It can have an effect on the way we view issues within societal boundaries. One of the major influences children have in their lives comes from their parents. The parents of a child can have both a positive and a negative influence on their lives. In the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird", there are two excellent examples of how parents can be a major influence on their children. Atticus Finch, father of Jem and Scout Finch, plays the loving, kind and knowledgeable father. He is an example of how parents can have a positive influence on their children. Bob Ewell, father of Mayella Ewell, plays the drunken, abusive, and neglectful father. He is an example of how a parent can be a negative influence
First, I would like to share with all of you what tennis is and what it’s like for the professionals and high school teams, to
An example of a female athlete being ridiculed for portraying society’s idea of non-femininity is Martina Navratilova. Martina was the first female tennis player who began to play tennis more as a power sport than a sport of technique. Subdued by an oppressive communist system that controlled the Czech Tennis Federation, she was seen to be playing in the style of men instead of playing women's tennis. As she did not fit into society's image of how a woman should look, behave and play tennis, she was ridiculed and branded as the proverbial ‘bad egg’ when compared to her contemporaries. Additionally, she was branded as a lesbian, which caused more hardship for her as she was forced to face a world which was much more homophobic at that time than it is now. Her sexual orientation is not a prime issue; it was something that was used against her and something that was assumed simply because she did not portray the feminine image that is expected of women.
He is fervently determined to succeed in his contemporary competitive society. In a conversation with his children about Bernard, he enumerates a few