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 everyone is well aware of the personal plights of others. 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. The significance in this detail is based on the idea that in a small town, folks tend to especially idolize those who are incredibly gifted. Due to strong sense of community and his extraordinary basketball skills, Flick was widely regarded as the best athlete in town; a superstar in the making. T...