Wayne Gretzky: Comparing Two Biographies Essay, Research Paper

Wayne Gretzky: Comparing Two Biographies

In this essay, I need to compare two biographies of a famous person. I

will plot out the difference and compare the two books considering point of

view, bias, aim, omission, interest and interpretation. This person is my hero

and idol. He is one of the great player in the history of hockey. He set the

all-time NHL scoring record in 26 seasons and got four Stanley cup in a row

from 1984-1988. He is Wayne Gretzky, the most brilliant and talent hockey

player in this century. Ichose the “Gretzky and Taylor” and “Gretzky with Rick

Reilly.

The book “Gretzky with Rick Reilly was an autobiography. It showed how

Wayne Gretzky from his AHL to a famous NHL player. In this book, there were a

lot of Gretzky’s childhood. We knew that Wayne Gretzky could skate at two years

old. He was well known by people at six. When he was ten, he was signing

autographs and had a national magazine article written about him. A thirty-

minutes national television show done on him at fifteen. It also talk about

Gretzky’s hero when he was a kid. He was a funny guy. He was Gretzky’s hockey

instructor. He was also his lacrosse, baseball basketball and cross country

coach. He was not only coach, but also trainer and chauffeur. Gretzky called

him dad, his name was Walter. However, in the book “Gretzky and Taylor”, it did

not show anything in Gretzky’s childhood. It was started when Gretzky became

the NHL player, a member of Edmonton Oiler’s rookie. How he became the hall of

the frame. The description of this book was very interesting. The writer show

the thing through the game. For example the first chapter was talking about

the 1984 Stanley Cup final between the Edmonton Oilers and New York Islander.

“Wayne,” he said, “don’t worry about not scoring so far. Just make sure

that when you do get a goal for us is a big one. ” (Page 15 Gretzky and Taylor

) From this conversation, we could know what had happen at that time. So, there

was different between the point of view of those two books.

Although this two books had the different point of view, they both had

the same aim. They also showed to young people that worked hard was the only

source of success. In the book “Gretzky with Rick Reilly”, Gretzky showed his

talent when he was young. He was national knew at six. There was even a wild

rumors that the New York Rangers were going to buy the entry Brantford Pee Wee

franchise, so that they had the right to take him when he turn the greater. But

behind the success, did you know how much Gretzky put on the hockey. In the

winter, Gretzky would get in the mourning, skated from seven o’ clock to eight-

thirty, went to school, came back home at three thirty, stayed on the ice until

his mother ready the dinner, ate in his skater, then went back out until nine

o’ clock. On Saturday and Sundays, he would have games played with his

neighborhood. So looked how much times that Gretzky put on the practice and

that time he was six. Also in the book “Gretzky and Taylor”, because of

Brantford, the home of Wayne Gretzky. He left home at fourteen. He moved to

Toronto, playing with the Toronto Young Nationals, Junior B. The years in

Toronto were no way for a kid. He was lonely, living without family. But why

Gretzky chose to do this? It was because he could go to school and nobody knew

who he was and he would play better hockey. So now we can see how Gretzky was

so successful.

We could clearly see the omission between these tow book. It was because

the “Gretzky and Taylor” was published in 1984, there was a great omission in

Gretzky’s life. This thing happened in 1988, the Edmonton Oilers wanted to

tread Gretzky to L.A. Kings. That was the most important trade in the NHL. The

book “Gretzky with Rick Reilly” was published in 1900. So it had some more

detail in this event. After the Oilers had won the fourth Stanley Cup in last

five years. The owner of the Oilers Nelson Skalbania wanted Oilers to go public,

so he could raise money easily. In order to go public, he had to get Gretzky

out of the personal service contract and make Gretzky property of the team.

Because Skalbania knew what he needed wasn’t more Stanley Cups. He didn’t need

to sell more ticket. His arena was already sold out. He need cash. So, now

Gretzky became a LA. Kings after this huge deal in the NHL history. Talking

about the bias, I didn’t think there had a lot of bias in this two books. I

could only find a little bias in the book “Gretzky with Rick Reilly” it was

because this book was a autobiography, it may had a little bit subjective. The

part that a felt subjective was the huge deal. In the book, it only had people

who supported Gretzky to give their comments, no one was on the side owner .May

be the thing was what the people had said, but you should also had the comment

of other side. So that people can compare by themselves.

Both two books were very interesting, not only the words but a lot of

pictures. These pictures could make the books more interested but also gave

readers the image how Gretzky played hockey. And the interpretation, both two

books had some statistic in the back. It showed how many goals, assists, points

and many other statistic of Wayne Gretzky. (see note 1)

Compare of these two books, I could find both very interested and

excllent. However, I thought the “Gretzky with Rick Reilly” was a liitle bit

better than the other because of the more specify details.