Open
“But this is your dream son!” “No, dad, it is your dream”. The plot twist of so many American sports movies – the son finally breaking away his father and the way he vicariously lives through his son. The same problem is seen in the autobiography Open from 2009 by Andre Agassi – although much darker. For even though Agassi grew up to be a world-famous tennis player it might not always have been his own dream. Because when you have a father who’s relationships and upbringing dominate your childhood it is quite often not the prettiest of memories you end up with.
The extract from the American tennis player Agassi’s autobiography deals with Agassi’s childhood and the relationships between him and his family members. There is especially …show more content…
Even the very first sentence: “My father’s mother lives with us”. But even though the grandma is the first person we are introduced to, Agassi’s father is who the text revolves around. This is reflected by both the first and the last sentence: “it all seems to flow from her choice of husband…”. Most of Agassi’s childhood also seems to be influenced by the father and his upbringing and dreams. For one, it is clear that not only does the father continue the grandmother’s abuse onto his own son, he also lives vicariously through him.
Much of the way Agassi’s father behaves is attributed to the way he was brought up: “He says she nagged him when he was a boy and often beat him (…) my father doesn’t know any better”. Now, Agassi is not treated by his father the way his grandmother treated her son, but the father still has issues. Agassi is in particular scared of his father’s temper which also makes him grow to resent him. This is shown in both Agassi’s love for his uncle – the father’s exact opposite – and the story’s ending, where Agassi is being comforted by his mother after a memorable training session (to say the …show more content…
Because of the father’s tendencies to externalize his childhood traumas onto the people around him, mixed with a young adulthood filled with boxing driven by a “grudge against the world” and a crushed dream of playing tennis professionally, the father becomes an intimidating cocktail seemingly determined to pursue his dreams through his son: “But my son, he adds – maybe they will make tennis an Olympic sport once again, and my son will win a gold medal, and that will make up for it”. However, we as a reader do not know the reason behind Agassi’s interest in tennis, and whether or not it was his own idea. Therefore, the father’s “pushiness” might just be an expression of Agassi’s resent. Nevertheless, Agassi definitely does not seem to enjoy playing tennis at this point in his life where these memories are from, because in the text he expresses that he does not understand why one would be homesick, when “Home is the place where (…) you have to play tennis”. This indicates that the power imbalance between Agassi’s generation and his father’s generation lead Agassi into a career he, at least originally, did not want.
And so, this extract from Andre Agassi’s autobiography basically describes the dark side of his glory. A childhood filled with tension, abuse and a pursue for someone else’s dream told as if
“But this is your dream son!” “No, dad, it is your dream”. The plot twist of so many American sports movies – the son finally breaking away his father and the way he vicariously lives through his son. The same problem is seen in the autobiography Open from 2009 by Andre Agassi – although much darker. For even though Agassi grew up to be a world-famous tennis player it might not always have been his own dream. Because when you have a father who’s relationships and upbringing dominate your childhood it is quite often not the prettiest of memories you end up with.
The extract from the American tennis player Agassi’s autobiography deals with Agassi’s childhood and the relationships between him and his family members. There is especially …show more content…
Even the very first sentence: “My father’s mother lives with us”. But even though the grandma is the first person we are introduced to, Agassi’s father is who the text revolves around. This is reflected by both the first and the last sentence: “it all seems to flow from her choice of husband…”. Most of Agassi’s childhood also seems to be influenced by the father and his upbringing and dreams. For one, it is clear that not only does the father continue the grandmother’s abuse onto his own son, he also lives vicariously through him.
Much of the way Agassi’s father behaves is attributed to the way he was brought up: “He says she nagged him when he was a boy and often beat him (…) my father doesn’t know any better”. Now, Agassi is not treated by his father the way his grandmother treated her son, but the father still has issues. Agassi is in particular scared of his father’s temper which also makes him grow to resent him. This is shown in both Agassi’s love for his uncle – the father’s exact opposite – and the story’s ending, where Agassi is being comforted by his mother after a memorable training session (to say the …show more content…
Because of the father’s tendencies to externalize his childhood traumas onto the people around him, mixed with a young adulthood filled with boxing driven by a “grudge against the world” and a crushed dream of playing tennis professionally, the father becomes an intimidating cocktail seemingly determined to pursue his dreams through his son: “But my son, he adds – maybe they will make tennis an Olympic sport once again, and my son will win a gold medal, and that will make up for it”. However, we as a reader do not know the reason behind Agassi’s interest in tennis, and whether or not it was his own idea. Therefore, the father’s “pushiness” might just be an expression of Agassi’s resent. Nevertheless, Agassi definitely does not seem to enjoy playing tennis at this point in his life where these memories are from, because in the text he expresses that he does not understand why one would be homesick, when “Home is the place where (…) you have to play tennis”. This indicates that the power imbalance between Agassi’s generation and his father’s generation lead Agassi into a career he, at least originally, did not want.
And so, this extract from Andre Agassi’s autobiography basically describes the dark side of his glory. A childhood filled with tension, abuse and a pursue for someone else’s dream told as if