Response To The Book 'Bleachers' By John Grisham

In the game of life, sometimes people are dealt a deck of cards that start off great but end up awful. Before anyone realizes it the first part of their life is over. Then there comes a choice “what next?” “Lou Holtz once said, ‘How you response to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.’” In the book Bleachers, the main character Neely Crenshaw is dealt a deck of cards much like that. After Neely takes one hit after another, he does not know what to do until he finds himself back in his hometown for his old coach’s funeral.

Imagine a nine year old boy who loves laughing. He is energetic, and it seems like he is always doing something. He is getting ready for the big football game later one afternoon. He has been waiting for this day for two weeks; it is finally here. Three plays into the game, he gets hit in the head. The boy comes out of the game for a couple of minutes, but eventually his coach puts him back in. A few plays later, he gets hit again, but this time he does not get up right away. When he does get up, he staggers off the field and falls, unconscious. Minutes later, an ambulance comes and takes the boy to the hospital. After hours of attempted treatments, the boy sadly dies. To prevent this common scenario from happening, tackling in youth football should be banned until kids reach early teenage years because it can cause detrimental head injuries, and many other future and emotional effects.

Tony Nathan grew up in Alabama where he loved to play sports. When he was in high school he tried to quit the football time. However, Tony’s mother Louise Nathan did not let him and took him straight to the head coach and asked for Tony’s spot back. He was accepted back where he played at safety. But one game changed that; he went from hardly playing to in on every offensive snap.

In John Grisham’s incredible novel Bleachers the inspiring man Eddie Rake acts as a great man by helping make Messina into a great place in order to create success for the entire town.The school and community develop into known places because of the great man Eddie Rake bringing the entire town together on Friday nights. Lives of his players transform completely from the wise words and actions from their great coach, Eddie Rake.

In his essay “Black Men and Public Spaces,” Brent Staples explains that people often find him intimidating because he is tall and black. Staples shares his account of a number of personal encounters, arguing that in each situation, he was misinterpreted as being dangerous because of his daunting physical appearance. Staples asserts that as a result of this misinterpretation, he was continually mistreated.

The poem “America” by Tony Hoagland dramatizes the conflict of life in America today. To many, poetry is a confusing group of words, but if the reader looks underneath the surface there is usually a deep hidden meaning of those words. In “America” the speaker is turning the words into metaphors to show the corrupted way of life Americans live. He uses key images in these metaphors to get the reader thinking. A key image is a word or phrase that doesn’t necessarily mean the literal object but instead shows characteristics of an unsaid object or idea.

“You give me a uniform, you give me a number on my back, I'll give you the guts.” Throughout the 2013 film “42”, Jackie Robinson indeed proves that he has the guts to counter racism in people from all walks of life. Character is the aspect of a person that decides what kind of person he is; it is who he is at his very core, and it affects his tolerance, courage, and sense of justice. Jackie’s dealing with the racism conveys true character, and it teaches the viewer how to behave when put to the test. Specifically, “42” exemplifies true character education in that it depicts Jackie Robinson persisting despite the racial prejudice of spectators, the media, and fellow athletes.

Usually considered a controversial novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger can often express the feelings of being an outcast and the desire to find a meaning in the world. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the novel, though often complains of the phoniness of the world around him, has a way of creating a deeper meaning within the readers. While the truth may be that Salinger purposely set the story in such a way that the readers will be able to connect with Holden, not often do readers find it easy to do so. While Holden believes that everything around him are wicked and phony, there is part of him trying to protect the innocence of those not corrupted by such phoniness. Although Holden wants to protect and save the innocence of children, can he really do so if cannot protect himself and trust those around him. Though Holden believes the world around him is phony and wicked, and while he wants to be the catcher in the rye, catching those who will fall over cliff; Holden does not only want to save those children but he also wants to save himself.

Imagine doing hard labor every day without getting paid. Imagine not being able to recover fully from a traumatic injury and being overcome with medical bills. This happened to many athletes, but one that stands out is Inky Johnson. Inky Johnson was a star football player for Tennessee. He was guaranteed to be in the top thirty of the NFL draft pick in 2006. He only had ten football games left, until his dreams came true. But, Inky’s whole life changed in a different way when playing against the Air Force. Inky tackled a player and tore all the nerves in his brachial plexus, causing surgeries and his right arm to be paralyzed. He could never play football again and instead had to live a more challenging life. This is just one example of how players put their lives at risk for the games they love so much. College athletes deserve to be paid for their dedication to sports. There has been huge controversy over this and it is considered to be one of the most debatable topics in sports. Inequality in sports has been shown in many ways. This includes women inequity, racial inequality, and coaches being paid more depending on what sport they coach. College athletes should be compensated for their work and be given rights.

It should be established before anything else that the author I have chosen, Kurt Vonnegut, was heavily influenced by World War II. The idea of war, along with its devastating effects, gave Vonnegut a rather cynical and twisted view on human nature. This perspective bleeds over onto his writing and can be seen in many of his major and minor works, including one of his most impactful, “Slaughterhouse 5,” in which he uses time travel, alien planets, and other farfetched ideas to describe the physical and emotional consequences of violent acts.

Do you train more for the big game mentally or physically? I train more mentally than physically for the big game. I say that mental prowess is as important as physical prowess in sports. I will use evidence from What Could Be Better Than A Touchdown and Why We Run to backup my claim that mental prowess is as important as physical prowess in sports.

Twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week, the ticking clock never stops, neither do the lives of about 7,214,958,996 people on this Earth. Each one equipped with their own set of personal strengths and weaknesses, yet out of those 7 billion people, no two people are exactly the same. Some would say you’re born with it in your DNA, and others say it takes time, but what really causes weaknesses with in oneself? Personal weakness is something that no human being can avoid in their lifetime, no matter how great they have it or think they are. Two works of literature that exemplify this idea are Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, which take you through the lives of two teenage boys who think greatly of themselves, yet carry around their weakness like a backpack full of rocks. Weakness is

Dane Kutnick is in right field , Tanner Smith at first, and Jason VanDenLangenberg is catching. We have played 3 tournaments together, but we already looked like we have been playing together for a long time. We may not have known it yet, but they were going to turn one of the best plays of the year.

Holden Caulfield lives his life as an outsider to his society, because of this any we (as a reader) find normal is a phony to him. Basically, every breathing thing in The Catcher in the Rye is a phony expect a select few, like Jane Gallagher. What is a phony to Holden and why is he obsessed with them? A phony is anyone who Holden feels is that living their authentic life, like D.B. (his older brother). Or simply anyone who fits into society norms, for example, Sally Hayes. Holden’s obsession stems from his fear that he may become a phony one day. So, he spends the book running from adulthood by doing childish things and struggling to keep his life from changing.

From the outset, I have to say that “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger has been one of the most important and influential pieces of literature I have ever read. At its core, the book is a superb coming of age novel which discusses several extremely powerful themes such as the difficulties of growing up, teenage angst and alienation and the superficiality, hypocrisy and pretension of the adult world. These themes resonated deeply with me and were portrayed excellently through the use of powerful symbolism and the creation of highly relatable and likable characters. One such character is Holden Caulfield whom the story both revolves around and is narrated by.