Initial Thoughts

Reading the first few chapters, I quickly learned that this novel was not only about the game of baseball. The first chapter had absolutely nothing to do with baseball. "After a troublesome shave in which he twice drew blood he used one thin towel to dry his hands, face, and neck, clean his razor and wipe up the wet of his toothbrush so as not to have to ask for another and this way to keep the bill down"(6). This passage, along with many others in the first chapter depict the authors diction, imagery, and syntax. This chapter gave the novel a very slow start and almost made it seem like it wasn't about baseball at all. The long, slow sentences that gave me information about every little action Roy Hobbs did really changed my mind about the book, because I was expecting a fast moving action novel about baseball.

I did not like how the author started the book out either. "Roy Hobbs pawed at the glass before thinking to prick a match with his thumbnail and hold the spurting flame in his cupped palm close to the lower berth window, but by then he had figured it was a tunnel they were passing through and was no longer surprised at the bright sight of himself holding a yellow light over his head, peering back in"(1). The first sentence plops you in the middle of the story but doesn't reveal anything to you except a man named Roy Hobbs is on a train. Luckily for me, the story started to pick up after the first chapter with a little bit of action.