I have yet to share my thesis topic so without further ado, here it is.

In my thesis, I hope to investigate the media representation of Jackie Robinson, looking specifically at his rookie year and how technique, content and language strategies of different forms of media influenced his iconic status as African-American’s first Major League Baseball player. Some questions I have are how constructed was the idea of “Jackie Robinson, African American hero”, by whom, and for what purpose. I’d also like to juxtapose Jackie Robinson’s rookie year media representation to the media representation of the second African-American MLB baseball player, Larry Doby, and to compare the similarities and particularly the differences, and examine why there are these differences.

The book that inspired my thesis topic, I have been able to have the time to sit down and relax with "In The Year of The Boar and Jackie Robinson," a children's novel written by Bette Bao Lord, and a personal childhood favorite. I fell in love with this book as a child for many reasons, and possibly the biggest reason is that it centered around Jackie Robinson, a childhood hero, the Brooklyn Dodgers, my all time favorite baseball franchise, and it was a rare book that had an Asian as the main character (Chinese female immigrant) who happened to be around my age (elementary student).

The book is about a young Chinese girl who immigrates to Brooklyn from China during the 1950's and her adventures (and misadventures) as she adjusts to living in America. The book also chronicles her love for Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers. I definately recommend this book to anybody who would love to sit down and read a book, for the simple joys of just reading.