Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Nervousness gets us all

Authors Note: I wrote this essay about the main character in one of my favorite Mike Lupica books. This essay explains how he changes throughout the book and how other characters influence him to change.

Nervousness, changes us all in the moment. In a football game when you’re having a bad day you get nervous and your personality changes a bit. When you do this and you’re the leader of the team then everybody else is going take this bad and get nervous too. Nate Brodie is an average teen who likes football, but he does have exceptional throwing skills. Nate gets the chance to win a million dollars by throwing a ball throw a ring at halftime of a patriots home game.  When you get the chance to win a million dollars and your family desperately needs it and all the weight is on your shoulders, when your best friend is going blind, and that can change you. 


 Nate Brodie's family is suffering from money problems, he is definitely taking a toll on this like his parents. He won a raffle drawing and now gets the chance to win a million dollars with a single throw that could save his family. If you've ever been in a situation with pressure you know it's not fun. This pressure changes Nate throughout the story especially when it changes him to actually complain. Nate is for sure not a complainer especially with his friend Abby going blind and not complaining. I think that is something else that helps him change back to the regular person he is.

 Abby is Nate's friend since they were little and she is now going blind but there’s one thing about her that no other child or teen could do. If you were going blind like Abby wouldn’t you think why it had to be you? Abby never thought that or complained. Throughout the book Abby influences Nate to just suck it up, Abby is really Nate’s best friend and they are both always there for each other. When Abby's dad loses his job her family goes from never having to complain about money to just as bad as Nate. When Nate hears this he is very comforting for Abby trying to help her. I think this changes his perspective on losing jobs because in the book after this it talks about how he thinks about that before he thought that it wouldn't be able to happen to Abby but it did so he realizes that it can happen to anyone.

 If you've ever played a sport or watched one where there is a obvious star one the team, then you know the feeling when he gets nervous. Everyone also gets nervous, and they get uneven with their playing the do good and bad. Nate is the captain of his football team and in games know he's getting nervous and doesn't want to throw. This is because of the pressure about making the throw on Thanksgiving, he keeps thinking what if I don't make it so this also changes him in a game. It's one of his favorite passing plays and he chooses to run it instead of throwing it. This is a good example of being changed by pressure.

A million dollars, that's a lot of money especially to a person who's family is suffering from debt and money. When a kid is 13 years old and is basically being expected to make this throw. Thus throw is from 20 yards through a hoop which doesn't seem hard but it really is.  A million dollars is the reward for making it and it's a million dollars that will decide if his family gets to keep or sell their house. That is way too much pressure for a 13 year old and that can make or break you, but it most definitely can change you. 

No comments:

Post a Comment