Literary Devices In John Updike's Ex-Basketball Player

Ex-Basketball Player, is a poem that tells the activities and life of former high school star basketball player, Flick Webb. Updike shows the rise of Webb’s high school career to the fall of his daily job, selling gas. The message behind the poem is to not only be a star athlete, but to also be a star student. He portrays this message by showing how Webb’s basketball skills became unprofitable after graduation. The lack of education that Webb received only allows him to be able to sell gas. Throughout the poem, John Updike sneaks examples of literary devices, such as personification, diction, and imagery into his writing. He uses the literary devices to create an abstract view of Flick Webb’s life.
Personification is defined as attributing human characteristics to nonhuman objects. Verbs and adjectives can be used to create personification. Updike uses personification when he is writing about the gas station and the pumps there. Updike (1993) writes, “idiot pumps” (p.1) and …show more content…
An example of specific imagery is when Updike says that Webb is “Grease- gray and kind of coiled” (p.1). This paints an image of how Webb went from a hometown hero to working at a dirty job and place. “Grease- gray” (p.1) represents the boredom of his job and the lack of fame that comes with it. Another example is when Updike describe the pumps as “idiot pumps” (p.1). This creates an image of how Webb use to be the town idol. He use to be the ideal basketball star that everyone use to look to. After his period of prominence, Webb now only is followed by “idiots”. The underlying imagery in Updike’s work, is Past vs. Present. He formulates a poem where it gives an image of Webb’s past and his present day life. The poem shows how Webb was glorified in his past, but due to a lack of education became just an undistinguished gas station employee. Updike uses imagery to complete his explanation of Flick Webb’s