Henry Daisy In The Art Of Fielding

Practice makes perfect is the thought that practicing for an activity will prepare you during the competition. This saying does not stand true in Chad Harbach’s, The Art of Fielding, a novel that focuses on the lives of five characters at a fictional, Wetish College. One of the main characters, Henry Skrimshander is recruited to Westish for baseball by a player, Mike Schwartz., and eventually becomes a top MLB prospect. During his junior year, Henry has experience that change his outlook on life. Henry originally, has one goal in life, to play professional baseball, but his experience with Mike Schwartz cause him to alter his goal drastically. Henry does not believe he can achieve his goal until he meets Mike Schwartz. Henry is
During his freshman year of Wetish baseball, Henry is a great fielder but lacks the other skills necessary for being a perfect baseball player. During the summer of his freshman and sophomore years, Henry trains with Mike at Wetish in order to improve his skills. “Henry stayed at Wetish to train with Schwartz. They met at five thirty every morning/ now he was locked in... Every day that summer had the same framework, the alarm at the same time, meals and workouts and shifts and SuperBoost at the same times” (47). The two follow the same routine every day while training. Meeting up at “five thirty every morning” demonstrates Henry’s commitment to his training and getting better. Mike pushes Henry to do better and become perfect. Henry hones his skills and becomes a top prospect due to Mike and Henry sees his dream of becoming an MLB player is in his
He makes countless errors and his dream grows farther unreachable. Everything he and Mike have trained for seems to be wasted. After a game where Henry makes another error, he escapes the field and goes for a swim in a lake and realizes what his life is about, “All he’d ever wanted was for nothing to ever change. Or for things to change only in the write ways” (345). “Maybe it wasn’t baseball that he loved but only the idea of perfection...and baseball was the medium through which he could make that happen.” (346). While baseball is collapsing around him, Henry finally comprehends that baseball is not his goal in life, but it is actually being perfect. Henry does not desire drastic change. He would prefer for his life to stay the same, due to his love for simplicity or for it to blossom. Henry longs for a simple life that is perfect in every aspect because his life is demising quickly. Henry also understands that baseball is not his dream because the game is not perfect. Henry suggests that he does not love baseball, but “the idea of perfection.” Henry demonstrated perfection through his tying of Aparcio Rodriguez’s record of consecutive errorless games, but when he commits an error, his perfection in baseball is gone. Then, Henry grasps the knowledge that what he truly yearns for is perfection. Baseball was just the tool he wants to use to become