Ex Ball Player Essays - Fencing, Flick, Pump,

Ex Ball Player In everyone's life there will be peaks and valleys. What happens when a boy peaks before he has even had the chance to be a man? Can he be content to live in his remembrances of the past even though he seemingly has no future? John Updike's poem, Ex-Basketball Player, suggests that whether happy or not, both the man and the town he lives in need those remembrances. They need them so much, in fact, that the man and town become dependant on each other for reaffirmation of the past. The poem is built around the character Flick Webb, who was a highschool basketball star, but is now confined to the monotony of pumping gas the small town where he was born and raised. Updike does not take an obvious "good or bad" stance on Flick's situation, but rather uses imagery to portray a dark, dingy world of the present and contrast it with the bright, shining glory of Flick's past. The imagery is evident in the first two lines of the poem, where Pearl Avenue "bends with the trolley tracks and stops, cut off." (2) Already we see that Flick's future has been cut short, like the very road that leads to Berth's Garage, where he pumps gas. In fact, the train even passes by the very high school Flick attended. Like Flick, though the train passes the high school, it does not go far beyond. The words "cut off" are the key to understanding Flick's situation. Abruptly, his course was changed. Without warning, his stardom was exchanged for mediocrity. A highschool basketball star's glory days were cut off by the striking reality that he, as the poem suggests, "never learned a trade." (19) In the poem's next stanza, it becomes obvious that Flick is out of place amongst the "idiot pumps" (7) with their "rubber elbows hanging loose and low." (9) The imagery suggests that these inanimate objects are as close as Flick comes to any sort of real contact with others, as is further suggested by the last stanza of the poem, in which he ignores Mae to stare of into "applauding tiers of Necco Wafers, Nibs, and JuJu Beads." (30) The reference to one of the pumps as"more of a football type" (12) also points to the fact that Flick views the world through sports analogies and his past. The fact that there are five pumps, like five men on a basketball court for each team, also suggests that Flick still views life in terms of basketball. These facts affirm the notion that Flick did not concentrate on anything other than basketball throughout his formative years. Not relationships with others, not academics, not a fallback plan. Just basketball. The term "idiot" used to describe the pumps (7) also separates Flick from the other basketball players he used to play with and against. Just as he is out of place amongst the pumps, his talent put him out of place amongst his peers. In fact, though he was revered and lauded, Flick was never really a part of the town. His presence was merely ornamental, and continues to be. The theme that Flick is not necessarily unhappy, but out of place, continues throughout the poem. As we are told that "the ball loved Flick" (16) and "he was the best," (14) we see that it is not just Flick who looks upon his past with a sort of admiration and pride. It is the entire city. He is, in fact, the local hero. The boy who didn't exactly make it big, but he made it big enough that he's remembered. Perhaps the town longs for that hero the same way Flick does. But it is not longing for Flick, specifically. What the town, as represented by the narrator, wants is another hero. Until one comes along, they will live vicariously through Flick's past. "As a gag, he dribbles an inner tube, but most of us remember anyway," (21-22) the narrator muses. It's as though Flick wants to remind the town of his past, but he has no need, for they cling to it just as he does. He does not see people, he sees spectators. He does not see gas pumps, he sees opponents, team mates, and athletes. He does not see candy, he sees a highschool gymnasium full of adoring fans. And likewise, the town does not see a person, but the person's past. It appears to be a very mutual need for reminiscence. However, Flick and his

Ghandi Essays - Gandhism, British Empire In World War II

Ghandi Essays - Gandhism, British Empire In World War II Ghandi Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India, on October 2, 1869. Although his father was a chief minister for the maharaja of Porbandar, the family came from the traditional caste of grocers (the name Gandhi means grocer). His mother's religion was Jainism, a Hindu religion which ideas of nonviolence and vegetarianism are very important. Gandhi said that he was most influenced by his mother, whose life was an endless chain of fasts and vows. When, in the company of boyhood friends, he secretly smoked, ate meat, told lies, or wore Western clothing, he had an intense feeling of guilt. These feelings forced him to make resolutions about his moral behaviour that were to stay with him for the rest of his life. Ghandi married at the age of 13. When he was 18, he went to London to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1891 and for a while he was attorney in Bombay. From 1893 to 1914 he worked for an Indian firm in South Africa. During these years Gandhi's humiliating experiences of open, official racial discrimination and aphartheid propelled him into agitation on behalf of the Indian community of South Africa. He started protest campaigns and organized provocating demonstrations, but never used violence. His philosophy was to never fight back against the atrocities, but still never retreat. This, he said, would decrease the hate against him and his fellow believers, and increase the respect felt towards him. Gandhi's one aim was that everybody - hindues, muslims, sikhs, jews, christians, black and white - could live together in peace and harmony. Under the banner We are citizens of the empire he gathered Indians from all over South Africa to a march for freedom. He gradually developed his techniques and tenets of nonviolent resistance, and when he returned to India in January 1915, he was celebrated as a national hero. He was soon asked to participate in and organize India's fight for freedom, as he fought aphatheid in South Africa. Then he started his journey to discover the real India, the life in the 700.000 small villages and the countryside with all the hardworking men and women. These were the ones he was going to represent in his fight for justice. As time passed, more and more people got to know about Gandhi and his controversial views, and Gandhi's popularity grew incredibly fast, something the English Vice-king and government didn't approve of at all. Armed only with honesty and a bamboo stick, Gandhi got through demands like a rebait on rent pay to the English land-owners, freedom for the Indians to grow crops of their own choice and the establishment of a part- Indian commission to hear grievances from the Indians. The Englishmen allowed these demands without questions, just to see the back of him. But Gandhi had greater aims. They sent Gandhi to jail several times, but they always had to release him, because he never used or indirectly caused violence or crime. He convinced almost everyone that nonviolence increases respect and decreases hate, but terror-actions and violence justifies the atrocities. Now, the Englishmen were getting afraid of this little, big man. And fright made them dangerous. In the town of Amritsar in 1919, English soliders, armed with guns, attacked and shot to kill hundreds of nationalist demonstrators, demonstrators who's goal was, ironically enough, nonviolence. 1516 demonstrators were killed or wounded. The general said that he wanted to give the Indians a lesson that would have an impact throughout all of India. The English people and government reputiated this terrible action and the attitude that prompted it. The massacre of Amritsar turned Gandhi to direct political protest, and made it possible for him to propose that maybe it was time for the Englishmen to go home for good. Within a year he was the dominant figure in the Indian National Congress, where Gandhi challenged the Brits: 100.000 Englishmen cannot control 350 million Indians if these Indians won't cooperate. That was what Gandhi wanted to achieve when he launched on a policy of noncooperation with the British. Nonviolence and noncooperation would make India independent of the British Empire, and the Indians would see the Englishmen off as friends. The first action of this noncooperation policy was to make the indians realize that to buy