The character flick webb essay

The poem is built about the character of Flick Webb. He is the a single referred to as the ex-basketball person. Flick was at one time a field hockey superstar in the county and a record setter. “In ’46, He bucketed three hundred 90 points, A county record still. … I saw him rack up thirty eight or forty” (lines 14, 15). The narrator describes how well Film played field hockey that his record of 390 details for a time has not been overtaken. He was like Kobe Bryant who was averaging 31 items per video game and at a period scored 52 against the Harrisburg Rockets.

(Kobe Bryant Bio 2007) Almost 10 years after the glorious high school times, Flick has not been able to continue his career as a basketball player. Rather he became a gasman at Berth’s Garage. “He never discovered a transact, he merely sells gas, Checks olive oil, and alterations flats. ” (lines nineteen, 20) Although Updike did not make any kind of judgment of Flick’s job as a gasman, whether his situation great or bad, there were recommendations in the last three stanzas that Flick and the people in the neighborhood are not happy with what this individual has become.

“Off work, this individual hangs around Mae’s Luncheonette. Grease-gray and sort of coiled, he performs pinball, Cigarettes those skinny cigars, healthcare professionals lemon phosphates. ” (lines 25-27) These lines claim that Flick is still a bachelor and nowhere to visit but a luncheonette; whiles away the time, not at all socializing. “Flick hardly ever says a word to Mae, just nods Beyond her face”. (lines 28, 29) He must always be attracted to Mae who is the owner of the luncheonette but can be apprehensive almost certainly because he provides nothing to supply the lady. The look

Ex-Basketball Participant is a story poem; this tells a tale. The narrator is assumed to be the publisher who could have been a observe to the life of a when popular high school graduation basketball player. The composition is set in free verse so that there is no pattern of measure inside the lines plus the stanzas. The first stanza has single line, the next provides two, then five lines for the next and the remaining portion of the stanzas have zero pattern. Updike also has a mode of giving the line unfinished and is continuing in the next stanza.

Like the collection “At Colonel McComsky Plaza. Berth’s Garage” (line 4) is in another stanza followed by “Is on the corner facing west, and there” (line 5). Updike’s style seems to pre-empt the idea before it comes in the next stanza allowing more stable flow of ideas. The design is effective since separating the queue did not distort the concept intended. Symbolism “Poetry communicates experience and experience concerns us mainly through the feelings (seeing, ability to hear, smelling, sense, and touching)”. (Reuben, g. 4) These are expressed through imagery.

Updike used a lot of imagery from this poem. Irony was evident in the line, “Flick stands tall against the idiot pumps”. (line 7) Movie standing taller is in contrast to the idiot pumps. It really is like saying Flick is definitely proud as they rises over a idiots or he is better off than the additional idiots. Updike wants to communicate how unhappy it is the fact that basketball job is over throughout the description with the location of Berth’s Storage area, “Bends with the trolley songs, and stops, cut off Ahead of it has a probability to go two blocks.

” (lines a couple of, 3) This individual uses the line “cut off before excellent chance”. (line 2) This means the future of the basketball superstar was shut down before the man had the opportunity. Updike possibly makes a component appear like a puzzle if he described the “nostrils with two S’s and the eye with a great E and O” (lines 10, 11), and he simply means it is an LUI gas train station. This also reveals the era in the poem mainly because ESSO was most well-liked in this decade.

“His hands were just like wild birds” (line 18), refers to Flick’s quick hands when it comes to managing the basketball, but this really is contrasted by the line “His hands are fine and nervous around the lug wrench” (line 23), which on this occasion criticizes his unskilled hands when it comes to changing flat tires. The two different lines speak about the same hands. This demonstrates that Flick was just great at basketball and so. Figurative Vocabulary Aside from the symbolisms and images, the use of representation is very effective.

Personification is a number of presentation that “gives the attributes of a human being for an animal, about object or possibly a concept”. (Reuben, p. 5) Personification is definitely evident in the description of the gas pumps in Berth’s garage area. Updike identifies the pushes as “idiot pumps” (line 7) like the pushes have minds. It in fact means that the pumps need to be guided by gasman constantly. The pumps also have “their rubber elbows hanging loose and low. One’s nostrils are two S’s, and his eyes A great E and O” (lines 10, 11). The pushes have plastic elbows and still have nostrils and eyes also.

It can mean that the sends are amongst Flick’s hardly any friends left. These are the sole ones that can look up in him now that he has changed into a nobody. However, another expression personifies the ball while loving, “the ball liked Flick” (line 16), mentioning Flick’s experience in shooting and dribbling a basketball the basketball. At Mae’s luncheonette, Flick looks over and above Mae’s deal with through the “applauding tiers of Necco Wafers, Nibs and Juju Beads”(lines 29, 30). The line from wafers, absences and beads were applauding means that Movie cannot actually look directly towards the young lady he wants.

He would not have the self-confidence to talk to a lady; too shy and awkward to even take a look at her in order that his focus drifts for the wafers and nibs in the background. The use of personification have been very effective in portraying Flick’s character along with contrasting the happy feeling of the earlier and setting the melancholy mood with the present. Personifying the sends, the ball, the tiers of wafers, nibs and beads included with the solitude in Flick’s life, as if there is no person else to offer comfort to him yet his pushes, his golf ball and the wafers at the background of the luncheonette.

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