Wasted Potential ("Ex-Basketba
Wasted Potential ("Ex-Basketball Player" by John Updike) "Ex-Basketball Player," by John Updike, is a touching account of a former high school athlete's descent from small-town superstar status into the ubiquitous ranks of mediocrity. Once famous for his extraordinary performances on the basketball court, Flick Webb is now reduced to pumping gas at the corner garage. His choices are ever patronized and criticized, albeit more with tone than with words. The reader is left wondering what could have been for this misguided young man, and particularly why he chose to turn his back on his talents as he did. The author's choice use of metaphors, symbols, and tone in his description of Flick Webb's fall from grace cast a stern and judgmental view of a missed calling, and a life wasted through unfulfilled potential. The speaker is probably an invented persona, although it could be the author himself. Since it is not clearly obvious, the speaker's main role is that of a town local, an individual who once looked up to Flick, but rejects what he has ultimately become. The setting is also firmly established, as there is significant evidence that the town is a small one, probably a town where there are no strangers and ev
This is a direct parallel to his days of high school basketball, since the sport is played with five team members on the court at a time. He hangs out in a luncheonette, where "he plays pinball, Smokes those thin cigars, nurses those lemon phosphates. This is an implied metaphor that Flick's life was like a pearl, a precious jewel with sparkling potential. The fact that the speaker describes Flick's current place of employment as "Berth's Garage", along with the reference to his off-duty hangout, "Mae's luncheonette", implies that not only does everyone know everyone in the town, but that they are all on a first-name basis with one another. If ever it seemed that someone had chosen the wrong path, it is in this poem. The diction used in calling the street "Pearl Avenue" was hardly an accident. Updike's use of imagery here allows the reader to visualize five beings, ready for action, among whom Flick is the tallest and most distinctive. The third and fourth stanzas complement each other well. Just as in all life, a dream is a terrible thing to waste. Reasons for Flick's current conditions are showcased - that he never learned a craft, rather settling on working in the gas station, selling gas and changing flats. Later, the reader is told that Flick "seldom says a word to Mae, just nods Beyond her face toward bright applauding tiers of Necco Wafers, Nibs, and Juju Beads. Instead, his path abruptly stops, and is cut off before it has a chance to go two blocks.
Common topics in this essay:
Pearl Avenue,
Reasons Flick's,
Juju Beads,
Flick Webb,
Berth's Garage,
Nonetheless Flick,
Flick Webb's,
John Updike,
Wizards Probably,
McComsky Plaza,
pearl avenue,
lug wrench,
flick's life,
idiot pumps,
stops cut chance,
former glory,
tall idiot,
life pearl,
flick's current,
cut chance blocks,
fourth stanza,
hanging loose low,
loose low,
elbows hanging loose,
tall idiot pumps,
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Acceptance Essays
