1. Create a Web site to introduce The Contender to other readers. Design pages to intrigue and inform your audience, and invite other readers to post their thoughts and responses to their reading of the novel. 2. Choose a scene from the novel and dramatize it for other classes. The […]
Read more Study Help Practice ProjectsStudy Help Essay Questions
1. Discuss the friendship between Alfred and James. Consider its limitations as well as its history and future possibilities. 2. Analyze Spoon’s character and his influence on Alfred. Refer to specifics of his life and to conversations between the two characters. 3. As a sportswriter for the New York Times, […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsStudy Help Full Glossary for The Contender
attache cases flat, rectangular cases, as for carrying documents; briefcases; here, referring to the cases being carried by businessmen going to the fight. big cats here, other African American men. boardwalk a walk, often made of wood and elevated, placed along a beach or seafront. Brooklyn a borough of New […]
Read more Study Help Full Glossary for The ContenderCritical Essays Style Enhances Substance in The Contender
Lipsyte’s writing style enhances the substance of his story in The Contender. He reveals Alfred’s life primarily through his own eyes. Lipsyte’s occasional similes and metaphors are particularly apt; his dialogue and imagery are powerfully effective. For the most part, Lipsyte uses a third-person narrative, limited to insight into Alfred’s […]
Read more Critical Essays Style Enhances Substance in The ContenderCritical Essays Major Themes in The Contender
The Contender is a coming-of-age novel, and its major themes are universal. They do not apply just to Alfred or to boxing or to Harlem. The themes of The Contender inform all of us about life, which is Mr. Donatelli’s point from the moment that he first talks with Alfred. […]
Read more Critical Essays Major Themes in The ContenderCritical Essays Setting as Symbol in The Contender
Essential to a full appreciation of The Contender is an understanding of Lipsyte’s use of setting. The world in which Alfred lives is Harlem, a predominantly black community on the northern end of Manhattan in New York City. Within the context of the novel, Lipsyte introduces various aspects of Harlem […]
Read more Critical Essays Setting as Symbol in The ContenderRobert Lipsyte Biography
Personal Background Robert Michael Lipsyte was born January 16, 1938, in New York, New York, the son of Sidney I. and Fanny Lipsyte. He grew up in Rego Park, a neighborhood in Queens. Lipsyte’s father was a school principal, his mother a teacher. Young Robert devoted his childhood to books […]
Read more Robert Lipsyte BiographyCharacter Analysis Lou Epstein
Lou Epstein is one of three brothers who own the store where Alfred works as a grocery clerk. Although the brothers have given Alfred a job, they come to distrust him after the attempted burglary by Major and the gang. The Epsteins know that Alfred and James were friends, and […]
Read more Character Analysis Lou EpsteinCharacter Analysis Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Wilson
Pearl’s sister and her family live in the suburban community of Jamaica in the borough of Queens. They represent the flight of the black middle class from Harlem after World War II. Whenever given half a chance, Uncle Wilson articulates the theory that a black man’s best interest is served […]
Read more Character Analysis Aunt Dorothy and Uncle WilsonCharacter Analysis Aunt Pearl
Aunt Pearl Conway provides a home and a moral context for Alfred. At least initially, she may be the difference between Alfred’s hope and James’ despair. She works hard for the white Elversen family, setting an example of effort that Alfred follows. A good Christian woman who tries her best, […]
Read more Character Analysis Aunt Pearl