Raymond's Run by Toni Cade Bambara Analytical Essay

Raymond’s Run is a short story about a girl named Hazel and her brother Raymond who is not “quite right”. Throughout the story there are many lessons learnt but I will be talking about two main ones: everyone deserves a second chance and the importance of looking/thinking outside of yourself. In this story Hazel, Raymond and even Gretchen all get second chances.  Hazel (Squeaky) is a runner and never lets anyone win races.  At the beginning of the story squeaky thinks that life is all about winning and if she ever loses, she will not be happy or that she will lose her good reputation. She shows this by saying, “in the first place, no one can beat me and that’s all there is to it”. She also thinks that to be liked she must be the toughest person “like I said I don’t feature a whole lot of chit chat, I prefer to just knock you down from the jump and everyone a whole lot of precious time.” she doesn’t allow people to enter her life very easily, most likely because she has trust issues and always wants to protect her brother, Raymond form the world, “you got anything to say to him you say it to me”.  Furthermore, she expresses how she doesn’t like Gretchen and doesn’t want her winning the race, “Gretchen smiles and I’m thinking girls never really know how to smile at each other” and “I always win cause I’m the best I say straight at Gretchen.”  Before the race squeaky sees Raymond at the other side of the fence and finally sees an ability in him she never took the time to notice. And when the judges contemplating who won the race, she lets her pride down saying “I can always retire as a runner and begin a whole new career as a coach with Raymond as my champion.” She gives him a chance to make a name for himself, “I’ve got a roomful of ribbons and medals and awards. But what has Raymond got to call his own?”. At this point Gretchen also gets another chance because while Gretchen is walking back from passing the ribbon, she begins to have some respect for her “and here comes Gretchen walking back, for she’s overshot the finish line too, huffing and puffing with her hands on her hips, taking it slow breathing in steady time like a real pro and I soft of like her for the first time.” When the results say that squeaky wins Gretchen congratulates her and for the first time they smile at each other, “and she nods to congratulate me” and “we stand there with this big smile of respect between us.” At the end of the story, they all get second chances at being something and hazel finally is smiling at people and letting people into her life. This ties in with the lesson of thinking outside of yourself; because if squeaky hadn’t put her pride aside for once she wouldn’t have seen the abilities of her brother nor would she gain respect for someone but herself.