Raymond's Run Bamueaky Analysis

What people experience in their childhood reflects on their personality and how they behave. In this short story called Raymond’s Run by Tony Cade Bambara, the protagonist Hazel Elizabeth Deborah Parker, known as Squeaky minds her older brother who has mental retardation. Looking after her brother and keep herself up as a fabulous runner really make her strong physically and mentally; she is a girl who strongly believes in practice to get anything better, and she respects anyone who works hard as well. Squeaky, who is known as the fastest runner in her school always takes care of her mentally challenged brother Raymond, and that makes her personality confident and tough. She is very proud of herself as a runner because “there is no track meet that [she doesn’t] win the first place medal”(21), and even “the big kids call [her] Mercury. Her running skill is built by
However, at the end of he story, she sees “Raymond would make a very fine runner”(26), and decides to “retire as a runner and begin a whole new career as a coach”(26). She remembers that Raymond always keep up with her when she practice, and knows how to breath in counts of seven; her conviction that he would be a great runner is confirmed when she sees his form of his own style running and climbing up the fence. After the race, Squeaky realizes that winning is not everything, but to teach someone to be successful. Also she got enough medals and ribbons for running races, so now she thinks that she could be better at other activities such as spelling words or playing piano. As coaching Raymond, Squeaky thinks that Gretchen would be a good partner since she is also “serious about running”(26) and practices a lot like Squeaky does; this could be a big turning point for both Squeaky and Raymond, focusing on something they never be so serious