49 pages • 1 hour read
Jackie RobinsonI Never Had It Made
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Taken from a Langston Hughes poem, the opening chapter of I Never Had It Made is titled “A Dream Deferred.” Analyze why Jackie Robinson chose this title for his first chapter.
How did the racist incident in the Army that led to a court martial trial prepare Jackie Robinson for his rookie season in Major League Baseball?
Analyze the consequences that Major League Baseball’s racial integration might have had on the Negro leagues in the years following 1947.
What might have been the consequences on racial integration in professional sports had Branch Rickey’s noble experiment failed because Jackie Robinson refused to “turn the other cheek?”
Analyze the decision made by Branch Rickey to allow Jackie Robinson to be “his own man” and discard his “turn the other cheek” policy beginning in 1949.
Describe and analyze Rachel Robinson’s decision to return to school and become a career professional in order to establish an identity of her own.
Describe and analyze Jackie Robinson’s initial annoyance and resentment to his wife’s decision to become a career professional.
Jackie Robinson was a bi-partisan political paradox in many ways. Conservatives sought him out to speak on issues concerning patriotism and drug abuse, and liberals sought him out to speak on matters concerning civil rights and race relations. Explore and analyze Robinson’s bi-partisan nature in American politics.
What effect did his son’s drug addiction have on Jackie Robinson’s social and political activism in the years before his death?
The story of Jackie Robinson’s historic breaking of Major League Baseball’s color barrier is one that deals with both social responsibility and personal integrity. Explore the role that Branch Rickey played in asking Robinson to be socially responsible by initially forsaking his personal integrity.
