Character Analysis: A Mickey Mantle Koan

Authors are given the dynamic potential to create an image in a reader’s mind that would previously be unimaginable. They are given a power to control one’s imagination, word by word, page by page. Donald Barthelme, Robert Frost, and J.D Salinger are all captavating authors because of their strong authority on their stories. However, one of the most notorious examples of this unique influence is in the short story A Mickey Mantle Koan by David James Duncan. Beautifully written, Duncan tells a story of an impeccably timed tragedy. Shortly after David’s brother John, who was a complete baseball fanatic, passes away of heart complications, David receives a signed ball from John’s hero, Mickey Mantle. However, contradicting what the reader may

Not only is the time frame significant to John 's death and the signed baseball, but it also involves the reader to truly understand David and John 's close-knit relationship. Sure, they are brothers. They are forced to deal with each other because of their common DNA, right? David explains, “We bickered regularly with our middle brother and little sister, but almost never with each other.” These boys demonstrated something much deeper than being siblings. John and David present a bond of two brothers that resembles more of a forever lasting companionship. They both loved baseball. The sport itself created a bond between the brothers that was made clearly evident by David James Duncan. Their love for baseball is explained when David tells, “...we 'd just aim for the chest and fire, hisssss POP! hisssss POP! until a meal, a duty, or total darkness forced us to recall that this was the real world in which even timeless pursuits come to an end.” They loved being together and doing something as simple as playing catch. Duncan grasps the reader by making them fall deeper into the story, as he first tells about the brothers’

David Tate Duncan enhances his detail in the place that the story takes its setting, further showing the importance of the love of baseball and relationship for David and John. Not only were the brothers living in a city that no major league team called home, but they were 637 miles away from the immediate one. With David being so devoted to MLB when he is living in Portland, truly shows his extreme enthusiasm for the sport. John demonstrated this with events such as, “He conducted a one-man campaign to notify the world that Roger Maris 's sixty-one homers in '61 came in three fewer at bats than Babe Ruth 's sixty in '27,” and, “He maintained-all statistical evidence to the contrary-that Clete Boyerwas a better third baseman than his brother, Ken, simply because Clete was a Yankee.” He was a true baseball fan. However, although the boys were living in an area that is unfamiliar to baseball, they still were able to make the most of the situation, and augment their relationship through the sport. Duncan gives John and David a beautiful area to escape from the typical childhood responsibilities, and toss around a ball, conversation, and emotion. The reader can truly tell the brothers’ relationship when David explains, “Our talk must have seemed strange to eavesdroppers.We lived in our bodies during catch, and our minds and mouths, though still operative, were just along for the ride.” Stuck between an apple orchard and Douglas firs, this was a place dedicated to just the boys.