Personification In John Updike's Ex Basketball Player

Ray Bradbury uses personification in his short story The Veldt to make the inanimate objects come to life. The house and deadly nursery prove to be a true and raw form of author’s craft. However, people may describe it as a simile or a metaphor, which is not correct considering the specifics of personification that were in play. In addition, the fact that even the things inside of the house, like the stove, had personification added in to describe them. Personification is a form of author’s craft that, in a way, must be used precisely, and in The Veldt, it is used as such, and in many creative

John Maloney’s “Good!” A short (14-line) poem incompasses the fast paced events within a Basketball game.It is limited third person from the perspective of a player that gained possession of the ball after a missed basket. The poet focuses the narrative onto the actions after the rebound occurred. The speaker of the poem, a player on the court, is focused on the game and the game alone, determined to keep the ball in his team’s possession and allow his team the chance to make a shot. Which in the end, he ends up taking the shot himself earning his team two points.

In the poem, “Ex – Basketball Player” by john Updike, (which is a narrative poem) illustrates the nature of life on how life is potentially is seen has a mirror to other people’s life, especially people who play sports. Life is the physical and mental experience of an individual. An in the poem the main character Flick, supply the poem with a good example of how life is potentially a mirror for other people. This poem is formally organized, even though it locks some qualities, it still haves the qualifications of a good poem. The “Ex Basket Player” is an interested poem because it has a good theme, tone and lots of figurative languages.

Personification is a great way to make the story very lively and exciting. One example of personification, the muttering and growling of the sea breaking on a rocky shore (Connell 19), is a great representation of this device because it adds a mysterious and human-like quality to the sound. That’s what the author was trying to accomplish; a mysterious feeling. Connell effectively used personification because when reading that, it made the sea breaking on the shore seem alive

The poem tells the story of the life of the former high school basketball standout, Flick Webb and his fall from grace and fame. The speaker takes us on a journey through Flick’s life, beginning with the main street in town, developing to Flick’s fall from fame to his lowly job, and then ends by telling us of his menial daily habits. He was once the best basketball player in his area. However, he has since his fall from grace he is now just a lowly gas attendant who checks oil, and changes flat tires for a living.

However, a poem could be written without personification and still be great. In this poem the speaker states, “season when the young buttercups and daisies climb up on the mulched bodies of their forebears to wave their flags in the parade” (1096). This stanza is personification because it talks about the buttercups and daisies climbing up. This line of the poem also reminds the reader of soldiers marching in a parade.

Updike does a great job describing the way he struggles with building the “perfect” character for his poems or novels. He shows us that even though poems and novels are a powerful thing the mind can be the most powerful when being

Question 2 Two lines that are examples of personification in the poem potsu-potsu by Lily Roland are ‘heralding the dashing downpour’ and the groaning bridge struggles to stand tall and strong’. This is used in the first line where it says heralding and dashing as rain dose not dash and thunder dose not herald. In the second line it can be seen when it says groaning bridge as a bridge dose not groan. The use of personification

Personification is the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form. To get you attached to the wolves, Mowat personifies them. This mostly starts in Chapter 9

By contrasting a player’s ardent exuberance for basketball with his xxx disappointment in the poem “American Hero,” Essex Hemphill reveals the athlete’s conflict between his enthusiasm for the game and his resentment toward his superficial fans. For instance, the author emphasizes the player’s fervent frame of mind, “[having] nothing to lose... / I let the tension go. / Shoot for the net. / I slam it through...” (Hemphill 1, 8-9, 11-12). Hemphill illustrates the competitor’s energetic passion for basketball by describing his game-winning skills and slick athleticism. In contrast, the poet depicts the player’s resentfulness toward the cheering mass as he muses “I scored / thirty-two points this game / and they love me for it” (13-15). Despite

According to the NCAA, only about 0.03% of high school basketball players get drafted out by an NBA team. 0.03% is such a little percentage that it is the same chance of someone getting four of a kind in a first round of poker (www.norwichcsd.org/Downloads/ ProSportsOdds.doc). With this striking percentage it is amazing to think so many young players hope to make it to the pros. In the end, regret and defeat are much too common, a theme that John Updike features in his poem, “Ex Basketball Player”. The poem's persona, Flick Webb, was surely not one of those lucky 0.03%. Flick Webb was the star basketball player at his high school. Now older, he works at a gas station, sometimes reliving his old dream by gloomily bouncing a tire by himself.

In the second stanza, Updike uses personification to compare the gas station and basketball. He describes Flick as tall man, which implies he had the physique to be a good basketball player. However in the same line he uses the phrase “idiot pumps” (7), implying Flick has the physical abilities but not the intelligence to be successful in the real world. The only players Flick competes with now days are the five “old bubble-head style” (8) gas pumps at the station. The number five is used here to represent the five players on a basketball team. The pumps take on a human form. They are described as having “rubber elbows hanging loose and low” (9). The letters on the front of the pump form the faces of these make believe players. Updike compares the gas station and basketball to emphasize the change in Flick’s life. Flick used to be a star on the basketball court, but now he works alone. He sees his past in everything around him including the imaginary gas pump players.

In contrast to the imagery used by Housman, Updike stresses the athlete’s fading glory as the athlete has lived past his triumphant days. As “To An Athlete Dying Young” begins the poem through the imagery that shows the athlete’s success and his gain of honor, whereas “Ex-Basketball Player” indicates that the athlete’s life is no longer filled with glory. The road leading to the place where he works shares with the readers how meaningless and empty the athlete’s life has become as the road “runs past the high-school lot, bends with the trolley tracks, and stops, cut off” (2). Flick, the subject of the poem, has had his years of glory when he played for his high school since he had the skills and talent to break records. He had extra talent that made him become one with the basketball and handle it like no one else could as “his hands were like wild birds” (18). Although Flick had his glorious years, unlike the athlete in “To An Athlete Dying Young” Flick’s glory does not last because he now “checks oil, and changes flats” (20). “To An Athlete Dying Young” emphasizes that it is better

Langston Hughes also uses characterization in this poem. The poem is a narrative on a specific character. Hughes describes in detail the background and interests. As soon as he leaves the classroom he starts thinking about his assignment and what he is going to write. This speaks to the characters drive and strive for his education. His race is also his struggle that allowed him to move to the north. Hughes shares what he loves to do, what he is passionate about, his knowledge, and his choice of music. His identity is clear and never questioned. Hughes knows who he is and what he is capable of accomplishing.

There is plenty of figurative language in this poem, which adds to the poem’s richness. There are several metaphors: “loaded gun” (which I think is a metaphor for life), “Vesuvian face” (volcano), and “Yellow eye” (which I am not sure about), “Yellow Eye” and “emphatic Thumb,” which stand for some kind of weapon. Personification is