John Updike's Ex-Basketball Player

In “Fastbreak” by Mike Lupica, Jayson faces many struggles in poverty. Jayson has no money

Football, like many sports, can be very unpredictable. You may think your receiver is wide open, but once you throw the ball they could be covered by an opponent and the ball could get intercepted. Just like many encounters you have in life, Sports can show themes of struggle and conflict. You many think some options or answers will work, but in the end, they may not. The poem "In the Pocket" by James Dickey, talks about a quarterback in the middle of a football game trying to find players to pass to. In the end all of his options were unavailable and he got sacked. This poem shows an emphasis on not only football but also friendship, war and, depression.

“The Chase” is about an adult chasing some kids, but Annie Dillard makes the story transition from throwing snowballs to “wanting the glory to last forever” and how the excitement of life at one moment can affect someone in the future to show that the excitement of life will always be there even when one is no longer a kid. The story starts with a group of friends, imagining how a game of football goes and continues with the encounter of a stranger. From throwing snowballs at his car to him chasing them till they couldn’t run anymore. The whole experience will change the way she looks at adults.

As Herbert Hoover eloquently put it, “Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.” War has no mercy. It takes homes, tears families apart, and steals childhoods from innocent people. Such is the case in A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. While people of seniority make all the impactful decisions that have to do with the war, the young boys of Devon School are forced to accept the realities of war and join the fight. In the novel A Separate Peace, Knowles showcases a sinister tone throughout the first pages, when Devon School is described. Using diction and figurative language, Knowles integrates this tone into Gene’s narration.

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

Social status is defined as a person's standing or importance in relation to other people within a society. Social status has affected the world for hundreds of years, from where you were allowed to go to the bathroom, to if you were allowed to vote. The way a person is viewed and treated is all caused by what is believed to be their rank in society and in the short story, “A&P”, John Updike uses irony, symbolism, and characterization to show this. Sometimes people dissatisfied with their opportunities get caught up with what others represent, causing rash decisions that lead to disappointment.

The short story “A&P” by John Updike introduces us to a young teenager named Sammy who worked at the A&P grocery store looking to find his freedom. Throughout reading A&P, I 've noticed the main character Sammy had a very keen eye that spotted every minor detail. When Sammy saw the three teenage girls only wearing bathing suits enter the grocery store, he perceived the girls dressed as if they were going to the beach. Sammy explained to us in detail the different bathing suits that the girls were wearing and their physical appearances. The primary symbol represented in this story is the bathing suits worn by the three teenage girls. John Updike uses the bathing suits to represent the girls being judged based on their attire and disregarding

Edward Hirsch’s poem “Fast Break” has a lot of good use of sensory details, figurative language, and sound devices. This poem is about the fast break in basketball when players quickly bring the ball the other way at an unprepared defense. The subject of basketball is untraditional. “Fast Break” is the best poem ever.

In A Summer Life by Gary Soto, the reader is taken on a journey through Soto’s childhood. The story starts when Soto is at age four and continues on until he is a mature seventeen year old. The impressive way in which Gary Soto writes this story provides the reader with enough details that they feel like they know Gary personally. That is especially true about the last chapter, “The River”. The symbolism and literary devices used in this chapter make it the best chapter of the story.

The book I am reading is Travel Team, by Mike Lupica. I really have enjoyed this book so far because it’s about the sport I love, which is why I keep reading it. It’s about a kid named Danny Walker who is mainly known for his shortness, but that doesn’t stop him. He may be the tiniest kid on the court, but he plays just as good as the 6 foot post on his team. Danny loves basketball and every time he steps out on that court, he plays with his whole heart. Nobody or nothing can take that away from him. He would do anything to play on the “all-star” basketball traveling team, but his dreams are crushed when he doesn’t make the team because he is supposedly too short.

As Robert Frost once said, “Two Roads Diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. Similar to Frost, the men’s basketball coach at St. Anthony’s High School, Robert Hurley, has taken the road less traveled by declining many professional coaching opportunities in order to remain a leader in his Jersey City Community. Hurley’s love for basketball and coaching began at the age thirteen years old when he was recruited to join a youth basketball league in his hometown, Jersey City. Despite his young age, Hurley learned how to lead by the example of this youth coach, Charlie Shaughnessy, who taught Hurley how to care for his protégés.

This indicates that Gatsby was a man who believed in the “orgastic future” and a world that was superior to the one he found himself in. Furthermore, Gatsby 's attempt to pursue the American Dream is seen through his struggle to reach for the “green light” which symbolizes Gatsby 's dream of being with Daisy, This is demonstrated when:

The movie Hoop Dreams centered on a pair of intercity youths, William Gates and Arthur Agee. Both of them lived in the projects surrounding Chicago. Their families were economically and educationally disadvantaged. William and Arthur had almost everything imaginable trying to prevent their success. However, they shared a dream of playing in NBA. With the support of their families, William’s and Arthur’s motivation to accomplish this goal led them to fantastic high school basketball careers.

Director James frames his documentary on rhetorical questions of Was Allen Iverson the best basketball player pound for pound? Or was Allen Iverson just a street thug in shorts? Was he coachable? These questions were continually on my mind during the film, as the director would interview people who lived in Hampton during the time of the events. To illustrate these points director Steve James’s began his documentary by describing his experience growing up in Hampton, VA, which was twenty years before the Allen Iverson incident. I theorized that the director wanted to present the racial divide that existed in his hometown before Allen Iverson and the

The poem “We Real Cool,” written by Gwendolyn Brooks in the late 1950s. The poem set in a popular pool hall called the Golden Shovel, in this time era pool halls and the Civil Rights Movement were very popular. The Civil Rights Movement was a movement where desegregation, protest, and social identity was an issue. In the poem, Brooks uses literary devices such as connotation, tone, alliteration, rhymes, and repetition to give us a quick view into the rebellious lives of seven young boys who all seem to have one thing in common-- the struggle of social identity.