Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens is the protagonist and author of the story “My Greatest Olympic Prize”, which is a true story from Jesse’s life. His full name was James Cleveland Owens, and he was an American track and field athlete. Born to a black family in Oakville, Alabama, on September 12th of 1913, he was the youngest of ten children born to Henry Cleveland Owens and Mary Emma Fitzgerald. In his youth, Jesse took up a multitude menial jobs such as loading freight cars, delivering groceries, and working at a shoe repair shop. Jesse’s athletic career started by him setting records in Junior High School. Since Jesse set various remarkable records in track and field athletics, multiple colleges recruited him, but ultimately, he chose Ohio State University, even though it did not offer him a track scholarship. To combat this, Jesse worked a number of jobs. Jesse’s major success was the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, where he had won four gold medals. The 1936 Summer Olympics is where our story is set.
One of the most striking features of Jesse Owens is the determination he has throughout the story. The motive behind Jesse’s grit is suitably described as him being “hot under the collar of Hitler’s ways”, since he heavily disagreed with the German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler’s ideology of Aryan supremacy. Hitler had a firm belief in the idea that the
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Thompson is portrayed as an irascible and ill-tempered lady. As Mr. Thompson enters the house with the sick and invalid girl, Maggie in his arms, Mrs. Thompson is infuriated and is quick to ask her husband to take Maggie to the poorhouse immediately, without waiting for the next day. Moreover, having no kin of her own has taken a toll on Mrs. Thompson, as she has completely lost her motherly affection. Her emotions have dried up, and she lives a desolate life. To cope with this, Mrs. Thompson has also taken up alcoholism, as her house is pervaded with