Shoeless Joe

During the 1970’s, America was enduring an economic recession it had not seen since the Great Depression. By 1982, the unemployment rate hit 10.8%. At this time approximately twelve million Americans were out of a job and had no income (Moss 317). For example, before Ray bought the farm in Iowa, he went to college and chose to be a life insurance salesman. However, he was unable to find a job (Kinsella 10). Ray was one of the millions of people who had troible finding work during the 1980’s. Kinsella is trying to show that during this time of

Kinsella’s main theme is going for your dreams, even if this dream could cost you your farm. He shows this by using a mysterious voice that tells Ray things like, “if you build it, they will come”. At first Ray does not know what this means, but he suddenly gets the thought that he must build a baseball field on his newly purchased farm. One critic explains, “The novel keeps you believing, it’s not so much believing, it’s wishing” (Lewis 239). Ray has no idea why he is doing this though but just begins building. He then realizes that if he does this his dreams may come true. But the idea of going for your dreams does not stop there. As Ian Pearson, a critic of Kinsella, says “The author wants us to release our reason and break down the barriers between the living and the dead” (Pearson 238). Ray’s father died when he was a young boy. Ray somehow believes that if he builds this field, his father may come back and play catch with him one last time (Kinsella 154). The only thing Ray remembers about his father is that he was a semi-pro baseball player who never made it big. Shoeless Joe was Ray’s father’s favorite baseball player and Ray remembers him talking about Shoeless Joe all the time. Ray has always wanted to see Shoeless Joe

Some topics in this essay:
Shoeless Joe, Vietnam War, Ian Pearson, Kinsella Canadian, Novels Students, Luckily Ray, Joe Ray’s, American Ray, shoeless joe, moss 317, build baseball field, build baseball, baseball field, ray remembers, bought farm, believing it’s, baseball player, versus society, “the novel,