Broken Dreams and Predictable Future in ExBasketball Player by John Updike
by Barry Wright
Essay: Broken Dreams and Predictable Future in Ex-Basketball Player by John Updike
Pages: 10
Rating: 3 stars
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Ex–Basketball Player – John Updike
Never put all your eggs in one basket. It is the ever so common tale of a talented kid with broken dreams. Flick
was an extremely gifted basketball player in high school with endless talent and lofty expectations but had
nothing to fall back on once those dreams where shattered. In the poem, Ex-Basketball player, John Updike uses
basketball imagery and puns to relate to the larger themes of broken dreams, and a predictable future.
In the first stanza, John Updike writes about Pearl Avenue. This symbolizes the path that the students from the
high-school can take. It is the road that Flick Webb is on as he is a standout basketball player at his school. The
adjectives that Updike uses to describe Pearl Avenue, bends, stops, and cut are all terms that are associated with
basketball movements. When he says that the road stops, he is foreshadowing the path to stardom stopping for
Flick. Next he states that “Berth’s Garage is on the corner facing west.” Here John Updike is hinting at the road
ending for Flick. He goes on to say that “Most days, you will find Flick Webb,” referring to the future of Flick being
spent here at the garage.
The second stanza continues with the basketball imagery. Updike writes “Flick stands tall among the idiot pumps.”
Here he is refereeing to Flick being taller than the opponents he used to play against in basketball. Next he talks
about the pumps being five to a side. This is also a connection to basketball because there are five players playing
for each team at any given time. He also refers to “rubber elbows hanging loose and low.” This can relate to a
number of basketball items from the rubber basketball, to rubber shoes.
John Updike uses the third stanza to ...