In Don Delillo’s Underworld, the baseball is sought after as the ultimate goal and a fulfillment in life for Nick and the memorabilia collector. On the other hand, the ubiquitous use of waste throughout the novel is a motif of both the byproduct and the opportunity cost of mankind’s quests for fulfillment. Waste, whether as literal waste, wasted love, wasted lives, or objects all serve as a contrast to the value of the baseball as an object of fulfillment.
The baseball Bobby Thomson hit is important because it is both worthless and priceless at the same time. It is worthless when it is removed from the context of a baseball game; it loses the very purpose that it stands for. Yet, people like Nick and the memorabilia collector are sentimentally attached to this particular baseball that produced a specific home run off ‘The Shot’. The circumstances of this baseball give it a history that is immensely valued by collectors like Nick and Marvin.
Because of the value of the baseball, people like Cotter, Nick and Marvin use any means necessary to track down the baseball. It was “the one thing that my whole life for the past twenty-two years I was trying to collect” according to Marvin, the memorabilia collector. Cotter’s persistence in securing the baseball in the prologue is also another such example. Once he gets ahold of the baseball, “he feels it hot and buzzy in his hand” (Delillo 48) and runs away as soon as possible to secure it.
Cotter, Nick and Marvin’s obsession with the baseball can be rationalized much like any other human goal or obsession. The baseball seems to symbolize a sense of purpose inherent in every human aspiration. The unique history behind the particular baseball is the reason why collectors like Nick and Mar...
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...ng a symbol of value in society and of being the ultimate goal for Marvin, Cotter, and Nick. The baseball, or value, is juxtaposed with waste, which is created whenever there is value. Both value and waste can be either material or immaterial: various ideas, relationships, money, cars are all examples of either value or waste depending on a person’s viewpoint. The relationship between waste and baseball is symbiotic: waste becomes reprocessed into value, which creates waste. This symbiosis, Delillo argues with his quote about waste, is responsible for ceaselessly driving the advancement of mankind. Therefore, Nick, Marvin, and Cotter are neither redeemed nor disregarded for searching out the baseball. Rather, they are simply behaving like how a human would be expected to behave.
Works Cited
DeLillo, Don. Underworld. New York, NY: Scribner, 2003, page 174.
“If you build it, he will come” (Kinsella 1). These words of an announcer jump start a struggle for Ray Kinsella to ease the tragic life of Shoeless Joe Jackson. Ray hears a voice of an announcer which leads him to build a baseball field that brings Shoeless Joe Jackson onto the field. However, this field puts his family on the verge of bankruptcy which is just one of the struggles Ray Kinsella is presented in his life. Shoeless Joe Jackson is no stranger to having no money, as he was only making a measly $1.25 as a kid struggling to support his family. He never attended school and was illiterate throughout his entire life. The struggle is completely the same with Ray Kinsella growing up, as he is forced into baseball, which ultimately makes him run away from home. Ray’s hate is Joes love. Joe loves baseball and makes it to the major leagues, but it doesn’t last. Joe’s career is cut short due to the fact he is accused of throwing the World Series, and banned from baseball forever. Rays’s father would have loved it if his son made it to the major leagues because he thought Ray had the potential and talent. However, his only dream was simple, he wanted to play a game of catch with his son, unfortunately, he passed away and he never got to see his son after he ran away. Shoeless Joe Jackson’s death wasn’t any better, as he died guilty of throwing the World Series which was the biggest sports tragedy to date. Tragedies are not uncommon phenomena, Ray Kinsella and Shoeless Joe Jackson have the unfortunate luck to go through a struggle fulfilled and uphill battle in what is suppose to be a wonderful thing, life.
Thesis statement: The Yankees Red Sox rivalry exemplifies loyalty and betrayal which is evident in the modernism literary movement.
During Graff’s childhood, he was not able to relate to readings that he was given in school. Instead, Graff was interested in baseball. Being that Graff was interested in baseball, he would often find himself reading books and magazines about baseball and baseball pla...
Step 3: 1. Eighner introduces his arguments through the use of narrative stories and his own personal experiences. He uses this technique to let the reader see firsthand how some people are able to survive off what is carelessly thrown away by others who take what they own for granted. Eighner illustrates this point on page 1, “The necessities of daily life I began to extract from Dumpsters. Yes, we ate from Dumpsters. Except for jeans, all my clothes can from Dumpsters. Boom boxes, candles, bedding, toilet paper, medicine, books, a typewriter… I acquired many things from the Dumpsters.”
As in all areas of social culture, African Americans denied of a shared walk through baseball history with whites turned to making their own history on the playing diamond of an ever-changing America. " African Americans recognized that they had the talent to throw and catch round horsehide objects almost as soon as t...
The batter pivots and swings hitting the ball high over the heads of the fielders, and the crowd goes wild. Playing sports has entertained and united people across the world. Even authors recognize the importance of sports in today’s society and incorporate them into their books to draw people quickly into the story. Chaim Potok uses baseball in his book The Chosen to bring together two teens Reuven Malter, a polite young Orthodox Jew, and Danny Saunders, a Hasidic Jew with a mind like a supercomputer, who would otherwise never have become friends due to their religious differences. During his friendship with Danny, Reuven learns about Jewish history and about being a true friend. Also, Reuven tries to help out people and less fortunate creatures. In fact, Reuven portrays kindness, reflects upon life, and respects others as he matures into a young rabbi.
I stood at the front gate of Fenway park, home of the Boston Red Sox, where the Green Monster stands tall, the year of 2013. As soon as I walked in through the front gate, the warm smell of hot buttery popcorn made my mouth water with comfort. This familiar smell brought me back to the times I went to baseball games with my Dad and grandfather. The spots of spilled soda stains stick and sizzle on the cold hard concrete floors surrounding the stadium. The steam of a freshly boiled hot dog fills my nostrils with delight. A few moments later the umpire had a scratchy voice that emitted through the stadium and announced, “Play Ball”. Then the fans all seated waiting for the game to begin. After a few minutes the 1st inning began and one of the most
Baseball remains today one of America’s most popular sports, and furthermore, baseball is one of America’s most successful forms of entertainment. As a result, Baseball is an economic being of its own. However, the sustainability of any professional sport organization depends directly on its economic capabilities. For example, in Baseball, all revenue is a product of the fans reaction to ticket prices, advertisements, television contracts, etc. During the devastating Great Depression in 1929, the fans of baseball experienced fiscal suffering. The appeal of baseball declined as more and more people were trying to make enough money to live. There was a significant drop in attention, attendance, and enjoyment. Although baseball’s vitality might have seemed threatened by the overwhelming Great Depression, the baseball community modernized their sport by implementing new changes that resulted in the game’s survival.
With about 83 players currently to in the MLB, 682 players since 1950, and so far 2 players in the Hall of Fame with much more to get inducted, it’s clear that the Dominican Republic dominates the game of baseball. In the Dominican Republic, baseball is the country’s pastime and official sport. Baseball doesn’t discriminate, regardless of gender, race, and economic status. In my personal view, baseball runs in the blood and embedded in the genetic coding of Dominicans. As a person whose mother and father are Dominican and born and raised in Miami, there seems to be little to nothing that connects me to their culture. Nonetheless, this Miami-born Dominican- American is proud to say that the sport I love the most can connect me to the Dominican
The novel Upside Down, by Eduardo Galeano depicts the injustices and unfairness of several branches of the global society. The differences between the colonized and the colonizer as Galeano writes is always growing and so is the gap between rich and poor. The author challenges western and eurocentric minds as to why on average, countries in the northern hemisphere have a higher standard of living than countries in the southern hemisphere. At first as a reader I thought the writer was whining about the unfairness of the world, but it is the social opiates such as the false idea of capitalism and choice that keeps us in check in this so called democracy. The author forces the reader to open their hearts to a concept that today's capitalist, power hungry society has almost forgotten
Throughout many of Toni Morrison?s novels, the plot is built around some conflict for her characters to overcome. Paradise, in particular, uses the relationships between women as a means of reaching this desired end. Paradise, a novel centered around the destruction of a convent and the women in it, supports this idea by showing how this building serves as a haven for dejected women (Smith). The bulk of the novel takes place during and after WWII and focuses on an all black town in Oklahoma. It is through the course of the novel that we see Morrison weave the bonds of women into the text as a means of healing the scars inflicted upon her characters in their respective societies.
Nine patriarchs found a town. Four women flee a life. Only one paradise is attained. Toni Morrison's novel Paradise revolves around the concept of "paradise," and those who believe they have it and those who actually do. Morrison uses a town and a former convent, each with its own religious center, to tell her tale about finding solace in an oppressive world. Whether fleeing inter- and intra-racial conflict or emotional hurt, the characters travel a path of self-isolation and eventual redemption. In her novel Paradise, Toni Morrison uses the town of Ruby and four broken women to demonstrate how "paradise" can not be achieved through isolation, but rather only through understanding and acceptance.
This game of a stick and ball has captivated the United States during good and bad times. In either time most of us today can remember stories of players from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. These are legendary figures in the sport of baseball that have are celebrated as hero’s and in scandal, i...
Tygiel, Jules. 2001; 2000. Past time: Baseball as history. Oxford England; New York: Oxford University Press.
Baseball fans, in addition to behaving insanely, are also fascinated by baseball trivia. Every day they turn to the sports page and study last night's statistics. They simply must see who extended his hitting streak and how many strikeouts the winning pitcher recorded. Their bookshelves are crammed full of record books, team yearbooks, and baseball almanacs. They delight in remembering such significant facts as who was the last left-handed third baseman to hit an inning-ending double play in the fifth game of the playoffs.