Author's Use of Narrative

This week in class there were some themes that were discussed and shown in the readings such as “Narrative” and “Story”. Although many of the readings had these similar themes, the authors chose to express these stories and narratives in a different way. One example is the author Grantland Rice. His way of writing in this reading was a more personal Narrative than the other authors. In this reading, “Game Called”, Rice talked about the life Babe Ruth from a personal experience to him since he actually knew him; he says “I’ve been close to Babe Ruth since 1919, nearly 30 years ago when the Red Sox and Giants traveled north from spring training together”. This personal experience that Rice had with Ruth makes a different personal type of Narrative. Rice also opens his reading through a poem that he wrote himself. After, he writes about Babe and his story life outside the athletic field. Other writers had a different approach when it came this sense of “Narrative” and “Story”. One other example is the narrative and story of Murray Kempton in “The Champ and the Chump”. This reading had a narrative of an underdog-boxing story. This type of narrative was different from Rice. Kempton gave a narrative of a boxer named Cassius Cay who would have one of the greatest boxing matches of his life since no one believed that he could win. No one thought that he could have a chance. In the end Cay won the boxing match. Kempton writes, “’I told ye’, Cassius Clay cried to all of us who had laughed at him. ‘I told y. I just played with him. I whipped him so bad and wasn’t that good. And look at me: I’m still pretty’”. Kempton quoted this phrase as well from Cay, which is another technique of Narrative he used in his writing, using a lot of quotes.

As seen through the readings, many sport-writing authors have very similar themes especially since they all talk about a certain topic, sports. However, although authors share similar themes each other has a different approach in their narratives. There are great approaches and themes like the reading of Rice where he talks about the life of an athlete outside the field. Most people know great athletes through the performance they give inside the field, but do not know how they really are outside the field and Rice did a great example of this using Babe as an example. Another of the stories and dialogue that is heard often is the story of an underdog story especially when no one believes in them. For example, Kempton’s underdog story of Clay and how no one thought he could win the match reminded me of last season in BPL soccer. Leicester City became champions in the 2015-2106 seasons when no one was expecting them to even become champions. It was a great surprise for all fans.