Summary Of The Short Story 'Ball' By Sam Koperwas

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In the short story, “Ball”, by Sam Koperwas, the author teaches us that parents putting their dreams and aspirations on their kids is dreadful thing for the kid and the parent. In the part, where the son gives up on trying to make a basket, the father pulls him by his ear and slams the ball hard into his stomach. Then, the father rambles on about eating an apple everyday and saying prayers can help you accomplish tasks. The father continues with this statement, “Argue and I’ll slap your eyes out.” (Koperwas). At first the father was immensly certain, his son was going to develop into an excellent basketball player. He’d showed absolute encouragement when he first gave the son the basketball. Everything shifts in tone, when his father realizes his son doesn’t want to be a basketball player and wants …show more content…
His son doesn’t pay attention and continues to shoot baskets. In his father’s point of view, his son is becoming a “monster” and he is clueless to fix it. The son reaches to make a basket and his colossol physical structure knocks his father off his feet. He looks at his son over him and and says to himself, “Pandora’s box breaks open in my heart.” (Koperwas). His son’s mental and physical state changes. His “Pop” turned him into a different person. His forced eating habits turned him into an abnormal looking kid. Since, he’s this tall, his stature makes him feel powerful. His father forced basketball into his brain and abandons his life-long dream. He wants to take his new stature out onto the basketball courts, so he feels proud of himself. Likewise, he’s transforming into sports “freak” and his father can acknowledge this. The son used to be a shy and jittered kid around his father but now the father feels threatend by his new state. His father becomes overstressed and the father’s recession starts all of these medical

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