Harry Sylvester's "I Won't Do No Dive"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Harry Sylvester's "I Won't Do No Dive" represents the cultural phenomenon of the fixing of boxing matches, which is commonly told in sports-themed literature and Hollywood screen plays. The author points out that, even the incorrect phrasing of the term, "I won't do no dive", is a deliberate double-negative, familiar as both the text of a boxer who won't deliberately lose a match and as a double-negative that resonates of the poor English of a boxer growing up in a rough area and enduring many battles in his attempted climb to the top. The paper relates that match fixing provides for an interesting literary device by creating a complicated dilemma, which underscores the importance of honesty and competition in sport and how the corruption of these mottos commonly debases it.

From the Paper:

"The era in which the story was written (the 1930s) also has literary implications, as we witness the rough-and-tumble surrounds of a struggling boxer in the earlier part of the twentieth century. The characters speak in the incorrect English of a rough area in a bygone era - which is not specified, but his again is a good literary device: we romanticize the era and the place, perhaps imagining a rough, no-holds-barred Brooklyn, where even the rough, down-on-their-luck crowd have dreams of boxing and making it big."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Sylvester, Harry (1937). "I Won't Do No Dive." Sports Best Stories (2001). Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 67-76.

More papers on Harry Sylvester's "I Won't Do No Dive":

• Book Review # 99221 : "Harry Sylvester's "I Won't Do No Dive"
• Analytical Essay # 129317 : "Fixing Boxing Matches"

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