Chapter1: The first chapter begins with football team tryouts. The young man, who is apparently the lead character, is amongst those trying out for the team although he isn't doing very well. The boy is being tackled left and right on every play. The internal monologue of this boy makes it very apparent to the reader that more than anything he wants to make the football team. As the third paragraph approaches we can start to see that discouragement is setting in. It even says: "He had never felt so lonely in his life, abandoned, defenseless." He becomes so discouraged that he finally resorts to falling asleep on the fifty-yard line. This is the first glimpse that we receive of his name; the coach calls him Renault but is this a first name or a last name? Now we are also starting to see a very prominent character trait he is a COWARD! This is apparent when his internal thoughts are the exact opposite of what he says, he will do almost anything to avoid confrontation. !.
Now, all of a sudden, this "boy" is being referred to as Jerry Renault. Despite all of Jerry's messed up plays he still fulfills his goal of making the team. It is now that Jerry again begins to show more signs of loneliness. At one point we find him having a conversation, more or less a game, with himself it appears that this "game" is played because he has no one else to talk to. Jerry then begins to feel pains from being tackled, a pain referred to as a bleep in his ribs, most likely a common cramp. But then the mood changes a bit and we begin to see another side of Jerry. He describes the feeling after the pain as a memory of ecstasy much like that of one after "jacking off", a feeling of stupidity and guilt. The chapter then ends with Jerry vomiting in the toilet.
Figurative Language and Imagery:.
Page 7-"A dam burst against one side of his head".
"A hand grenade shattered his stomach".
"He saw the field through drifting gauze but held on until everything settled into place like a lens focusing, making the world sharp again, with edges.
