In John Updike’s poem “Ex-Basketball Player” the poet uses literary devices to depict the existing way of life of a once-famous sportsperson. Flick Webb was in before times a gifted athlete on his high school basketball team, and he was commendable of much awe. However, Flick never acquired any other skills to prepare him for a future. Accordingly, he now is locked into an unskilled job and his former glories have pale to all but Flick himself. Updike has created a character that is at this point in time going nowhere and spends most of his time thinking about his former days of glory. Flick dwells more restricted by the past than the present because the past was much brighter for him. Flick’s emotional retreat into his earlier period is exposed …show more content…
Updike makes widespread use of personifying. The street Flick works on is personified as “running,” “stopping,” “bending,” and being “cut off” before it has a “chance” (Updike). All of these images similarly apply to Flick. The gas pumps are personified as “idiot pumps,” similar to guards in basketball. Only Flick’s, lost in his daydreams, could pass by the pumps; imagine them as guards on a basketball team. In stanza three the ball is personified to lay emphasis on flicks skill, and a simile likens Flick’s hands to wild birds. Yet irrelevant, the lug wrench is personified in the next stanza we jumped back to the present. While “the ball loved flick” (Updike) the lug is indifferent to Flick’s skill. In the last stanza, a metaphor depicts flick as standing “kind of coiled”, signifying the old basketball player within flick is still ready to spring. The last two lines liken the town of candy to former applauding audiences in the seats. Of course, only Flick is able to imagine them as such, which tells how much Flick is rivetted in the past. Thus, the variety of uses of figurative language show the reader what is going on in Flick’s mind, and the reader sees that Flick is eluding into fantasies about former victories. Updike depicts Former athlete to the current gas station attendant, allowing the reader to sympathize with Flick’s partiality for reminiscing. Updike employs a number of words regularly linked with sports to imply the former athlete’s skill. Words such as “runs,” “bends,” “stops” and “cut off” (Updike) are strong action words often used to express actions in basketball. In stanza three, where the speaker reflects back on flick’s character, the specific word choice stresses Flick’s athletic ability. Words such as “bucketed,” “county record still,” (Updike) and “rack up” highlights his achievements. Yet the words the speaker uses to describe the
John Cheever’s “The Swimmer” is a beautiful, multi layered depiction of a man's unwitting downfall. The story follows Neddy Merrill, a somewhat alcoholic and adventurous man, as he takes a expedition to go home by pool hopping the country. Neddy is the source of his own undoing as he represses years of his life pool by pool and eventually he has to come to terms with his life. Cheever poetically uses symbolism to indirectly show the changing of Neddy, his situation, and the world around him.
In the short story “A&P” John Updike uses a plethora of symbols to enhance his writing. Bathing suits, herring snacks, and sheep are three symbols that add to the deeper meaning of the story and give us an insight into Sammy’s thoughts. The narrator, Sammy, has grown accustomed to the daily routine of work at the A&P until 3 girls come in wearing brightly colored bathing suits. Sammy was baffled by their rebellious nature and commented “They didn’t even have shoes on” (197) to add to his disbelief. The bathing suits symbolize the girls as fresh and exciting.
Through rough characterization, stereotyping, and moral dilemmas, Updike exemplifies how one person can have a big affect on another, even in a short amount of time, with very little physical
“Execution” by Edward Hirsch is about an adult recollecting his thoughts about his high school football career and especially how his coach inspired him because his authoritative role model was battling cancer. The speaker talks about the coach’s goal for “perfect execution” and the infinite strategies the coach would draw up in order to reach his goal. The speaker concludes with their team’s loss against “the downstate team” and how they were ironically defeated by “perfect execution.” A superficial reader might assume that the poem was about the disappointing results that came from his team working hard to reach a goal, but the author’s use of impersonal tone and irony in the fact that their team’s loss is caused by “perfect execution” shows how a strong force can be conquered even when putting your best foot forward when accepting a challenge. Have you ever been a part of a team that seemed invincible and you lost?
Early in the story, Updike uses symbolism to show that sometimes people unhappy with their options begin to obsess with what others have. Standing
The author uses a lot of alliteration as to describe something such as randy roosters and crabbed and constricted character to emphasize the point of the sentence made by his words. In the second paragraph, the word legend is used along with a definition from back in the day to support why Charles Porter Jr. was nicknamed after a bird. When speaking of birds, Ellison states that the goldfinch was a symbolic figure that appeared several times in European paintings. “...the small, lawny-brown bird with a bright red patch about the base of its bill and a broad yellow band across its wings became a representative of the soul…”, allows the audience to vision the bird that was used to describe Porter. When talking about the second bird, the mockingbird, the author states that this is more promising giving the audience an insight on the author’s perspective.
The Boys of Dunbar written by Alejandro Danois is a compelling narrative about an inner-city Baltimore high school basketball team who became a national powerhouse from 1981-1983. This is “A story of love, hope, and basketball”. Throughout this essay, The Boys of Dunbar will be explained, reviewed and critiqued. The two Dunbar teams from 1981-1983 are regarded as some of the best high school basketball teams that were ever assembled and many of the players on these teams are thought of as some of the most talented basketball players to ever come from Baltimore.
Soon his team runs onto the field and begins to play. As a reader I felt that the imagery enhanced my experience, describing why the protagonist does these tasks. If the author had not used imagery like the baseball announcer approaching the protagonist or the description of the old fashioned uniform what Shoeless Joe was wearing, it would have been difficult to imagine the scenes. Since these scenes are the beginning of the story and are very important to the novel, the author used good words to make it visually
In John Updike’s short story “A&P,” Sammy is the narrator and cashier at the grocery story A&P. The author uses dynamic characters with immensely different personalities to portray conformity and rebellion in our society. Through out the story Sammy challenges conformity and social norms at his work place for personal reasons. Sammy is very bitter character and taken as a realist which fuels the story. Queenie, a rebel against conformity, sparks Sammy’s emotions after the way she is treated by his boss Langel when she walks into the grocery store with nothing but a bikini covering her skin.
Updike exerts and manipulates the plot, character, setting, the point of view, and symbolism. These crafts incorporate with one another in the story to highlight what the character is experiencing. For example, in the story, "his face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he'd just had an injection of iron”… (144-145) This quote refers to Sammy looking back through the store at Lengal after he just quit his job.
The assonance of the o sound in who, looks, to, and floor used here is another way to emphasize how the defender was unprepared for the fast break. Finally Hirsch has a good use of consonance. In line 30, “falling, hitting the floor” (Hirsch 30). The consonance of the ng sound at the end of falling and hitting emphasizes that in the game of basketball you have to be willing to sacrifice your body for the betterment of the team. Hirsch’s use of sound devices are one final reason why “Fast Break” is the best poem ever.
Firstly, “Slam, Dunk & Hook” is the bliss-out of the sport called basketball, presenting how dominion, and beauty enthused each athletes. The beginning of the poem centers its attention by giving an explicit imagery, of how basketball is an essential tool on this player life. Using their sneakers insignia to show their
John Updike uses the bathing suits to represent the girls being judged based on their attire and disregarding
But as the story continues, Casey, an extremely well-known and skilled player, is up next to bat. We know Casey is an extremely well-known and skilled player because of the evidence the poem gives us. These examples are “Theyʼd put money now, with Case at the bat.” which emphasizes on how good Casey is at the game. As the story continues, the first pitch is thrown.
The reader quickly goes from word to word, stanza to stanza; if their inner monologue could speak, it would be with intonation comparable to Neil Hilborn, or even a horse, referred to as “coursers” in the poem. The reader goes through the piece with the quickness and fluidity of a fox or Niagara Falls or, as Dickinson described it, a horse daintily and meticulously picking up and setting down its feet while sidestepping during a show, called