Skip to main content

In Shoeless Joe, why is Ray's relationship with his father so important, in light of the importance of fathers playing catch with sons throughout...

The Game of Catch in Baseball Literature


Catch is an important device in baseball literature that is often used to illustrate the importance of strong relationships between fathers and sons. This simple activity is a wholesome representation of America's favorite pastime, and it is a common bonding activity between fathers and sons throughout the genre. While Ray's relationship with his father ended painfully with his death, baseball was the one thing that had always united them. Although Ray is hesitant when he is first reunited with his father, a simple game of baseball at the end of the story serves as a metaphor for the restoration of their relationship to its former state. 


Ray's Relationship with His Father


The relationship between Ray and his father is a central dynamic in the novel. Ray developed his love of baseball because of his father, who was a catcher for the White Sox. Shoeless Joe was his father's hero, and his belief in the disgraced player's innocence serves as an interesting parallel to the family dynamics between Ray, his brother Richard, and their father. At the time Ray is first given instructions to build a baseball field, his father has been dead for twenty years. Building the field so Shoeless Joe will come to play on it is Ray's attempt to bring peace to his father's spirit and give them all a second chance at redemption.


After Ray meets Shoeless Joe, he longs for his father to have the chance to play alongside him. His father appears on the field as a twenty-five-year-old version of himself, and at first, Ray does not know what to do. The author uses this touching reunion to tie together the other major themes in the story, such as forgiveness, healing and the love of baseball that transcends time and circumstance. Ray's relationship with his father, which is finally brought to a resolution as they join the other players on the field, is the core of the story. It is this relationship that motivated him to build the field, seek out a missing Salinger, and reunite the White Sox team. As Ray is brought closer to his father, his brother also experiences an unlikely reconciliation with him. Baseball has transcended death itself to unite brothers, a father and his sons, and an entire team of ghostly players.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more