The Slump By John Updike Analysis

Thousands of fans sitting and staring at one man up at the plate. All the attention focused on him while a single bead of sweat dripped off his forehead and onto home plate. Bright lights flash as the crowd erupts with cheering while the anticipation for the first pitch builds with every passing second. "The Slump," written by John Updike, accurately illustrates the pressure and excitement of being a professional baseball player and how discouraging it could be when one finds themself in a hitting slump. Through this short story the reader learns that there is no longer the excitement there once was as a young and talented player; instead, it has now turned into an unbearable pressure and panic to maintain being in top condition to play

Updike decides to throw the reader right into the story plot with no previous background knowledge about baseball or what professionals typically go through. The story begins: "They say reflexes, the coach says reflexes, even the papers now are saying reflexes, but I don't think it's the reflexes so much..." (Updike 1). Through the specific choices he makes in regards to diction, the author is able to create a realistic understanding of the pressure from not only oneself but their coaches, families, and peers. The decision of including jargon includes the very vivid description words that create imagery for someone reading this selection (who may not possess much baseball knowledge). He implements baseball jargon, such as including DiMaggio, describing the field like an emerald, and expressing that the baseball still has the pitcher's thumbprints on it. All of these small details that would normally be missed in the game are taken notice of here in this work. This solidifies the idea that the player's mind quickly races due to the panic of being in a hitting slump, which sets the tone of anxiousness throughout the entire

Updike dives into the idea and literary technique of creating a stream of consciousness that seems all over the place for the readers. He attempts to catch the thought process of someone who is stressed out and panicked and how their thoughts are no longer cohesive. The baseball player jumps from the thought of his wife timing his reflexes while wearing a gorilla mask, standing in the batter's box awaiting a pitch, driving to the stadium in a convertible, back to the idea of his wife and a kid playing catch, and finally to DiMaggio (someone who finally broke his hitting slump). All of these elements within this story combine to vividly illustrate the feelings that come along with pressure, stress, and panic. The player's thoughts are revealed when he exclaims, "They say I'm not hungry, but I still feel hungry, only now it's a kind of panic hungry, and that's not the right kind" (Updike 3). Through the random thoughts in no particular order, this creates a confusion within the story that may add a sense of stress for the readers in order to make the baseball player's panic more realistic and achievable for the audience to understand and sympathize for. In addition to the diction, the choice of the structure being set up in respect to the stream of consciousness provides the internal thoughts and