The Critical Book on The Art of Fielding - Report Example

The Critical Book Report on the Art of Fielding The Chad Harback’s novel, The Art of Fielding, though ostensibly about baseball, is much more than that. It clearly captures the complexities of human relationships, hopes of redemption, fears and doubts of human life in vivid details. Revolving around few characters, the story is well formed, despite its complex multi-dimensional approach. The life experiences faced by the characters bring out changes into their lives, either unfortunate or beneficial, contributing to the transformation that is required for their redemption from the past. For me, the novel gave me the feeling of heart-wrench at few places, as well as bittersweet elsewhere. However, what made me get attached with genuine concern for the characters was the way, in which each character finds restoration from their past, and find revelations about the reality of life. Even though the novel holds many other themes, I feel that the idea of redemption is the one that I can relate to the Christian theology or insight. Harbach mentions in the novel that troubles ignite the way for salvation in one’s life. As he tries to insist on this fact, I can find that this entire notion of salvation highlighted by the author seems to be connected with suffering, maturity and God. That is, if one can get through suffering, he would ultimately find his redemption with god; however, if he fails to face the failure, he would lose himself to the worldly pleasures, sensual desires and addiction. “Every guy who is wounded up becomes either an alcoholic or a born-again Christian. Booze or God. That’s what this game does to you. The name of the game is failure, and if you can’t handle failure you won’t last long. Nobody’s perfect.” (Harbach 172). It could be evident that suffering begets growth and when you are stuck up in life, that’s when, your way of thinking changes to far better, aspiring to find redemption for the past mistakes. From the story, it is evident that most of the characters are struggling to find a way out from their mistakes or past life, ultimately finding redemption through various means. For instance, Henry, the main character of the novel is unable to get past from his baseball errors, particularly the injury that he inflicted on his friend, Owen. Although it was an unintentional act, he still feels guilty for it and finally injures himself in the same way. However, it is significant that what he has done to himself was a way to find redemption for his past mistake. There are also few more similar illustrations of redemption that are visible through life experiences of the characters in the Harbach’s novel. Pella trying to exhume her father’s body and burying it into the lake is a kind of redemption, which she feels has to be done, to satisfy her father’s soul. Similarly, Affenlight and Owen, they are bound by attraction in their gay relationship, which leads to transformation and ultimately their destiny. At one stage of life, when every human becomes desperately honest with himself, he is ultimately led to the realization of profound truths that are hidden behind the life’s experiences. I have learnt that even though there is not much mystery about the origin of life and things, there is still a part of human heart longing to discover and open up to the reality of it. This discovery leads to desire of perfection, an impossible quest that many humans aspire to reach. On the way to this unreachable quest, we find people losing their faith in themselves, giving way to fears and doubts that transforms their souls into the ultimate discovery of what is already within. I strongly believe that lack of faith on one’s powers and truth is the real reason behind all the misery in one’s life. When one is constantly aware of his self-worth, truth and beauty of his inner-self, there is a fine impulse that creates miracles to one’s living. However, when things go wrong, or lives start degrading, humans are bound to fall apart. This leads to untold hurts and destruction of lives that leads to transformation of one’s soul, either for better or worse. This transformation of soul is the deliverance or redemption that many humans require to recompense for their past life, filled with agony. From the theological point of view, this redemption or transformation of one’s soul can be related to the Christian notion of Salvation. To mention clearly, Salvation can be regarded as the yearning, desires, hopes and purpose of one’s life in the world. There exists over different meanings for ‘Salvation’, including the most observed distorted and negative association of the word with heaven-hell framework. However, the understanding of the ‘eternal salvation’ makes the far-flung difference to the notion of salvation among traditional and contemporary Christians. For me, the idea of redemption from past sins is emotionally compelling thought that every human get through in life. I can say that salvation can or cannot be based on Christian principles, but salvation for the humans is the entire purpose of one’s life. As per the Christian theology, salvation is possible through the blood of Jesus, which is the only way to be righteousness. Being righteousness does not depend on the good or bad deeds of a human, but of the blood of Jesus which was shed for the sake of saving mankind from sin. This redemption was the salvation intended for the humans by the Almighty God, who sent his only son as a sacrifice to the sins of humans. So I believe that when a human aspires for salvation, he has to understand the righteousness that God has created through Jesus Christ, which is the way for being delivered from the evils of world. I can view this salvation from an entirely different notion too. That is, it can be viewed as the transformation of a soul, which discovers the reality of life, through the trials and tribulations. Similarly, this transformation is attained only when a person is faced with difficulties and pushed to the extreme limits of endurance. That is when a soul longs to find a deliverance from life’s problems and past mistakes. Even though Christian notion of salvation stresses on Jesus Christ as the only way to eternal life, contemporary meanings can be interpreted as the transformation of individuals for being delivered from the power and penalty of sin. The notion of sin can be viewed not only as a deliberate act of evil, but of every human mistake that brings harm, destruction or misfortune to one’s life as well as others in the society. So, it is not the malevolent acts of human that needs redemption but of any act that leads the human lives into devastation, requires a sort of deliverance, which is what salvation is all about. The novel takes baseball as a metaphor to life, drawing subtle and deep resemblances to life’s dreams, disappointments and hopes of redemption. I can see that, baseball resembles much closer to one’s life, as the victory and failure of the game is determined by the errors that the players make. In both the game and life, for attaining victory, one has to surpass all the errors, and face the failures with determination to win. If we focus on the past errors, it hinders the ability of the player to move forward in the game, just as Henry in the novel. Until he did not make any mistake, he was honored and praised. But a single shot that went awry changed the entire pace of the game as well as his life. When he succumbed to the defeat, he dropped further down in his career and self-esteem, which led to his break-down. However, when realized that he was able to overcome and rectify the mistakes of his, he was able to conquer the victory. He found redemption from his past by being transformed to a greater level of insight, where he realizes that facing the game of life brings the difference, not the thoughtless action. Salvation can be regarded as a twofold transformation, of ourselves as well as of the world around us. Sometimes, just an inner transformation does not solve anything in life. It requires the circumstances and people behind it to be changed for better. “We yearn for the transformation of our lives-for a fuller connection to what is, from liberation to all that keeps us in bondage.” (Borg 54). We aspire to reach the full potential of our lives, hoping for unattainable perfection and trying to make a world a better place. The happenings of life are accompanied with pain and sufferings, through myriad of experiences and errors. I observe that any crisis moment in an individual’s life leads to transformation of one’s life and soul. Since failure is an inevitable aspect of life, it is essential for the humans to find redemption for their mistakes. Sometimes, it is needed in the form of deliverance or transformation for an individual, while other might view it as a sort of liberation from their struggles or bondage. Every man longs to be saved from that which ails them. This is what had exactly happened with the characters of the novel. Each one is longing to be rescued from his or her past mistakes, looking for a salvation within themselves or outside. Sometimes, a transformation of the soul brings a better insight about life, revealing the errors and bondage that has kept them from growing. As for Henry, his attempts to reach perfection in baseball leads to all the troubles for himself as well as everyone related to him. He finds his own world swirling around, not for better but worse, because of his one mistake. The reason behind his problem was is fears of making errors in the match. When he realizes that his fear has captivated him for so long, he releases it and finds a transformation from within. Perfection is something impossible to attain and aspiring for it is just a waste of time and energy. When one reaches this brink of awareness, he would find a transformation of self, realizing that life is full of nothingness and one has to invent his own life from the past mistakes. I can assume that many people are left in the crossroads of life, seeking for perfection in worldly affairs, which keeps them in bondage forever. However, redemption for such people is possible only when they understand the reality of life, its uncertainty and the void notion of perfection. Even though it is not possible to create a perfect life, I strongly believe that it is still possible to make a better life. The pain of growth is what makes human experience the true colors of life, where one’s dreams and desires are shrunken by the practicality of life. Each of the characters in the novel is left in the crossroads of life, pulled by their own past mistakes, desires and dreams, to make a leap of faith for risking everything. For them, either abandoning or enacting their wildest dreams is what left with to decide. The characters are delved into the emotional toil of life, struggling hard to salvage their relationships, career and life. They even come in face-to-face with the life’s loss, temporal state of distress and the ultimate fate of nothingness. Finally, they find a transformation through their experiences of life, individual epiphany and personal transcendence. No matter the past decisions, mistakes and tragic experiences, there is much of the life left to conquer and hopes of faith is the key to redemption. It might be impossible for the circumstances to change, it might be a hard road to cross, or it might be a terrible mistake in the past, but, in life, there is nothing that cannot be redeemed or recompensed. From the Christian perspective, salvation is possible through having faith in God, even when life seems hard. Hopes of redemption make the life worthwhile and the transformation that is brought into the souls of human delivers them from bondage and life struggles. Thus, one has to take heart in dealing with the life’s storms, looking for a way in which one can find redemption to the past experiences that has kept them in bondage. Works Cited Harbach, Chad. The Art of Fielding. HarperCollins UK, 2011. Borg, Marcus J. Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power—And How They Can Be Restored. HarperCollins, 2011. Read More