The Great White Hope (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Howard Sackler
- First Published: 1968
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Historical
- Time of Work: The years preceding World War I
- Setting: The United States, Europe, Mexico, and Cuba
- Genres: Social realism, Drama, History play
- Subjects: African Americans, Discrimination, History, United States or Americans, Power, personal or social, Racism, Europe or Europeans, Courage, 1910’s, Success or failure, Boxing, Cuba or Cubans, Mexico or Mexicans, Biography
- Locales: Europe, United States, Mexico, Cuba
Characters Discussed
Jack Jefferson, a black heavyweight boxing champion. A complex personality, Jack plays many roles in American society in the years preceding World War I. After defeating the white champion, he becomes the object of the establishment’s attempts to dethrone him by finding a Great White Hope. Jack is powerful, aware, and moody; he knows what is expected of him outside the ring, but he plays the role of the big, black buck, slow of speech and intelligence and lusting after white women, with obvious irony. He also has a self-destructive bent because he lives...
[The entire page is 633 words long]
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