Critical Lens Essay 12/8/10 American poet Robert Elliot Gonzales once wrote‚ “A good many family trees are shady.” What he means is that parents do not always give their children what is most necessary to achieve in life. In Ex-Basketball Player by John Updike and Death Of A Salesman by Arthur Miller the main characters lack self-esteem and cannot fulfill their dreams primarily because of their lack of familial support. More specifically‚ the protagonists‚ Flick Webb and Biff Lowman‚ suffer
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A Reading of Updike’s “Ex-Basketball Player” The purpose of this essay is to inform the reader about a poem by John Updike‚ called “Ex-Basketball player”. The speaker in the poem talks about a man named Flick Webb and his apathetic life. He informs the reader about Flick Webb’s exceptional talent as a basketball player in high school. Towards the end of the poem the realization is that Flick Webb’s exceptional basketball talent had been berried under his reality of life. In the eyes of the
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Many people have a difficult time letting go of their past. When you can’t let go of your past‚ you can’t move forward into the future. In the “Ex-Basketball Player” by John Updike‚ Flick Webb finds himself holding onto the past and not being able to move on. Flick’s disappointment in the present causes him to try and relive the glory days of life that he had in the past. To explore Flick’s disappointment in the present‚ Updike utilizes setting‚ tone‚ and irony. In the first stanza‚ Updike
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Compare and Contrast the Speakers Lakesha Wilson Everest University The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening are both very good poems. I feel The Road Not Taken is one that reminds me of myself. I will tell you how they differ but at the same time are so much alike. In The Road Not Taken he lets us know that he has to make a decision. In order to make that decision he looks as far as he can to see what road he wants to take. He talks about how the path he took may
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“The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” Robert Frost’s "The Road Not Taken" and "Ceasing by Woods on a Snowy Evening" both manage the most troublesome decisions in life. "The previous is about youth and confronting life and the last is about maturity‚ or all the more presumably‚ an old soul depleted by life. In both lyrics the speaker is in an intense condition in which he needs to pick between two ways in life" (Untermeyer). "The Road Not taken" the speaker picks the uncommon
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Contrast Essay: "To An Athlete Dying Young" vs. "Ex-Basketball Player" “To An Athlete Dying Young” and “Ex-Basketball Player” share the lives of two very different athletes. Both experience success in their lives‚ but one dies with his glory while the other lives past his days of glory and works at a gas pump where he is not recognized. The poems discuss the importance of having glory and keeping that glory as long as possible. Through the poems the readers learn the benefits of dying young as
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Pearls Before Swine Where you are can explain who you are. Why you are in a particular place and how you got there tell an outside observer about your decisions and the inferred motives behind those decisions. In “Ex-Basketball Player‚” John Updike introduces a character whose surroundings emulate his success in life: Flick Webb. Flick’s momentary success did not remain later in his life. Because setting partially defines a person‚ Updike uses it‚ along with tone and irony to remind readers that
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Die with fame‚ not without. A.E. Housman can concur. The poems‚ “Ex-Basketball Player” by John Updike and “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman both concentrate on what occurs after an athlete’s days of glory. Most of them seek fame‚ but only a few will achieve it. Their goal is not to die within their days of glory‚ it is to live on and have their fame live for an eternity. Unfortunately‚ in today’s society athletes mainly want the monetary success that comes along fame. They quickly become
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In the poem "Ex-Basketball Player" the author John Updike asserts the theme that some people spend their entire lives remembering the past instead of focusing on their present future. The character in the poem‚ a man named Flick Webb use to be a very good basketball player in high school. He seems to be caught up in what he was and not what he is now. His life is just passing by him because he is stuck in the past and not focused on what he is doing in his life now. He floats around on his job and
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lot of traffic on the road or when the rubbish had not been collected. The results show that persimmons street a nicer place to live than McGinn road. McGinn road is a busy road with cars and busses driving along all day especially in the mornings and afternoon and cars going into and out of the shops. Persimmons Street is much quieter than Mcginn road‚ with at most 30 cars passing a day. Persimmons Street has better houses with new rentals houses being built. Persimmons road has easy access to shops
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