The Right Fielder

“Death of The Right Fielder” is a short story written by Stuart Dybek that is told from the point of view of a player on a baseball team. The story centered around the theme of death where it is defined through baseball talk. The “Right Fielder” is a reprensentation of people among us who just don’t amount to anything, and how when they die they go unnoticed for a time. A variety of similes were used throughout the story. The first being in the opening paragraph which Dybek illustrates the team just noticing the right fielder lying on the grass resembling a towel. For a team and their fans to not notice a man dead on the field illistrated the point that the right fielder was irrelevant to world let alone his own teammates and fans. The narrator goes on to explain how baseball teams work while contemplating how long the boy had been dead. He talks about how the right fielder had gone unnoticed by the team, and

The traits of an alpha male are the greatest part of the male population. Science gives an example of this trait. One explanation states that during Stone Age, the ma successful duringnly man was the one who was successful in the hunt for food, were physically strong, and an aggressive behavior which would give them the best chance of surviving over the beta male. Dybek’s description of the infielders that played with the right fielder presented these traits. He stated, “The infield is for wisecrackers, pepper pots, gum-poppers.” Being an Alpha has its cons though. Alpha males have a hard time feeling empathy and emotionally connect with other people. After finding the right fielder dead, the emotional connection a normal person would have for the dead they could not get, “Someone, the shortstop probably, suggested team prayer. So, we all just stood there, silently bowing our heads, pretending to pray....” The base players showed that they were