Plot:
Chick Benetto is not perfect. Told by his father that he "can be a mama's boy or you can be a daddy's boy, but you can't be both,"(pg.21). Chick chooses to be a daddy's boy and devotes his young life to pleasing him. Dad wants Chick to pursue baseball, which Chick does. Even after his father disappears when he's 11, Chick doesn't give up the dream and the goal of pleasing him(pg.64-169). He continues the sport, eventually playing for a minor league team and ultimately getting the call to the majors in time to play in the World Series. All the while, his mother raises Chick and his sister Roberta, making sacrifices they aren't even aware of(pg.64-189). When Chick's father resurfaces to follow Chick's career, Chick doesn't tell his mother(pg. 122-143). And, in fact, all too often he puts his father first before his mother, struggling to please him. But when Chick hurts his leg, his dreams, and his father's dreams,of a career in major league baseball are shattered, and Chick is left with the hollow realization that his hopes for a strong relationship with his father were ruled by that dream of a career. Slowly his father fades into the background, and Chick finds comfort in the bottle. His dad never offers him a job, even when he sees Chick struggling to keep above water financially. Chick realizes how much he had neglected his mother, the one who truly was his support, in order to garner favor with his father. All these realizations are too much for Chick, and he decides to take his own life. Chick's attempt to kill himself ends up giving him the chance to spend one more day with his long-dead mother(pg.172-197).
So if you had the chance, just one chance, to go back and fix what you did wrong in life, would you take it?
And if you did, would you be big enough to stand it?
So if you had the chance, just one chance, to go back and fix what you did wrong in life, would you take it?
And if you did, would you be big enough to stand it?