John Updike The First Kiss Summary

John Updike conveys to the audience, Red Sox fans, in “The First Kiss” that baseball is just a game and it is simply meant to be played for fun. Updike uses strong metaphors, to portray his point
Updike uses a recurring metaphor throughout which describes the Red Sox fans as being a monster. Updike starts out by having “the many-headed monster” endeavour hope towards the new season. The monster keeps returning for more even though “last year [they] broke its monstrous big heart”. The fans “braced for the first kiss of another prolonged entanglement”. Updike uses a romantic motif/metaphor to show that baseball is complicated just like a relationship is. The word entanglement shows that baseball is NEVER perfect just like a relationship is not always perfect, there are complications that go with both. When the fans start to lose faith in the Red Sox fans Updike writes “But monsters have short memories, elastic hearts, and very foolable faculties”. This shows that …show more content…
In the beginning the author uses words like “dank”, “dreadful”, “unravelling” “mottled pewter” to describe Opening Day and by the end “a moment of sun made some of the windows of the Prudential Center sparkle”. The sun is symbolic and contributes hope and a second chance. The tone shifts derestricted from doom and gloom to a stepping stone towards a new beginning Another tone shift that occurs is in the beginning they experienced a “four game massacre” and “Fisk standing ever more erect and stoic at the plate, looking more and more like a Civil War memorial financed with Confederate dollars”. The tone the author creates is indigent and worthless. The team looks like crap and Updike uses a smile to show how the pitcher means nothing to the team. The tone lightens up and the team has a “statistical virginity” which is a fresh start and a new beginning to do great