Ex Basketball Player By John Updike Summary

After looking at the title of the poem “Ex-Basketball Player,” I assume it is about a former basketball player and his life now. After I read the poem, I find out that John Updike, the author, starts the first paragraph by describing a town. He tells about the trolley tracks and some of the stores, including a plaza and a garage. Then, the author goes on to introduce a character in the poem, Flick Webb, who helps in the garage in town. In the second paragraph, the author explains that Webb used to play for the town’s high school team, the Wizards. The author says, while scoring three hundred and ninety points, Webb was the best on the team. In the third paragraph, it tells how Webb now works in the garage shop. Sometimes he dribbles an inner tube around, but everyone remembers his past glory days on the court. As the poem comes to an end, bringing up the last paragraph, the author tells how Flicker Webb now spends his days. He hangs out at a luncheonette, plays pinball, and smokes thin cigars. Throughout this poem, there are connotations being used, an attitude portrayed, and a shift that occurs in the story being told. There are many connotations being used in this poem. The author uses imagery and figurative language to show that Webb is dwelling within the past. This is proven when
Although the poem is about a former basketball player, it has more meaning than that. It is about the former basketball player’s life after his basketball days are over. It shows that he went from being “the best” basketball player to man who “sells gas, checks oil, and changes flats.” The theme of this poem is if you do not work on your goals, you will never reach your dreams. Instead, you will find yourself two blocks down the road working in a garage. No matter what you do, you should work your hardest to be the best at it. If you do not work hard, you will be another “Ex-Basketball