Significance of Victory in The Champion of the World - Essay Example

Those gathered near the radio seek emancipation not only from legal constraints but also from social ones. The victory is necessary, not only to prove a point against people of European origin but also to themselves. The concept of self-emancipation as a victory in itself is articulated by Angelou when she talks of the love of God being denied to the blacks. True that we were stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty and unlucky and worst of all, that God Himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end. (ibid)This doubt is to an extent removed from the minds of the people who do not hesitate to call themselves by a derogatory term that was assigned to African Americans.

This situation changes towards the end of the fight when the crowd identifies itself with the victorious boxer. Every member of the crowd also identifies himself or herself with each other and the victory turns into a collective one. Angelou thus emphasizes the need for collective action for the emancipation of the black fraternity. Also required for the achievement of this victory is solidarity between the members of this race, without which the collective cannot exist. Every blow to Joe Louis is taken as a blow to the collective, similar to a lynching.

The boxing match ceases to be simply a trial of the strengths of two individuals but a political statement that exposes the wrongs suffered by a particular community. The images that are used to describe the atmosphere too are symbolic and remind one of the beauties of the color black. This is illustrated by a reference to the “black sky” “streaked with lightning”. This serves to universalize the victory as the victory of the audience that has finally found an avenue where they are able to conquer the white man, thus shattering the illusions that existed regarding the supremacy of the white man.

Angelou’s work demonstrates the strength of the collective and the impressions formed on the narrator during a victory in which the narrator comes closer to the community of African Americans.