Joyce Carol Oates “Golden Gloves” Story, the Main Character Struggles with Insecurity, Even as an Adult Who Eventually Achieves Success and Happiness in His Career and Marriage.
Yu-Tzu Lin
Instructor Emily Plicka
English 101
6, October 2012
In Joyce Carol Oates’ story “Golden Gloves”, it is about the growth of a boy to becoming a man. This boy who was a born with deformed feet, he had couldn’t walk until 3 years old. His dad was a little shameful of him being handicapped. He didn’t like people to touch him or help him. When he was eight, he had a surgery on his feet. He suffered a lot of pains during his rehabilitation .His father took him to a boxing match and he fell in love with boxing right away. He told himself that He would box one day at the Golden Gloves tournament and people would see him standing there in that ring, not in a wheelchair.
He began his training at the YMCA. He worked out every day in order to keep himself in the best shape. All he thought about was boxing. He was told that he had talent and had a future. He won many local matches. At the young age of eighteen he boxed in the semi-finals of the Golden Gloves tournament, and it was the game that ended his boxing career. A few years later, he married a woman, Annemarie, who desired to have children so bad. She always wanted to have a family even after her first miscarriage; she still persisted to be pregnant again. Finally, Annemarie got pregnant again. They took natural childbirth classes together. But her husband never told Annemarie about his past---about his amateur boxing. He even wasn’t honest about his premature birth and deformed feet. It is a deep shame he struggles with. Joyce Carol Oates “Golden Gloves” story, the main character struggles with insecurity, even as an adult who eventually achieves success and happiness in his career and marriage.
His insecurity haunts him his whole life through: First, insecurity as a child, he was suffering a lot of pain from his deformed feet. He was being bullied by the kids at school. He would grab them and hurt them and made them cry when he got older. Those childhood experiences built up his personality more
Instructor Emily Plicka
English 101
6, October 2012
In Joyce Carol Oates’ story “Golden Gloves”, it is about the growth of a boy to becoming a man. This boy who was a born with deformed feet, he had couldn’t walk until 3 years old. His dad was a little shameful of him being handicapped. He didn’t like people to touch him or help him. When he was eight, he had a surgery on his feet. He suffered a lot of pains during his rehabilitation .His father took him to a boxing match and he fell in love with boxing right away. He told himself that He would box one day at the Golden Gloves tournament and people would see him standing there in that ring, not in a wheelchair.
He began his training at the YMCA. He worked out every day in order to keep himself in the best shape. All he thought about was boxing. He was told that he had talent and had a future. He won many local matches. At the young age of eighteen he boxed in the semi-finals of the Golden Gloves tournament, and it was the game that ended his boxing career. A few years later, he married a woman, Annemarie, who desired to have children so bad. She always wanted to have a family even after her first miscarriage; she still persisted to be pregnant again. Finally, Annemarie got pregnant again. They took natural childbirth classes together. But her husband never told Annemarie about his past---about his amateur boxing. He even wasn’t honest about his premature birth and deformed feet. It is a deep shame he struggles with. Joyce Carol Oates “Golden Gloves” story, the main character struggles with insecurity, even as an adult who eventually achieves success and happiness in his career and marriage.
His insecurity haunts him his whole life through: First, insecurity as a child, he was suffering a lot of pain from his deformed feet. He was being bullied by the kids at school. He would grab them and hurt them and made them cry when he got older. Those childhood experiences built up his personality more