Theme Of Fame In John Grisham's Bleachers

Some small towns take great pride in a singular activity that the community excels in. The fictional town of Messina, featured in John Grisham’s novel Bleachers, is radical even among that group. American football is a primary focus of many of the inhabitants’ lives, dominating conversation and their free time. With conversation comes gossip and rumors, amplified by the small town atmosphere where everyone knows many details of the lives of the other citizens. This train of thought brings one to the point where these are not people that are being talked about but rather a figure for entertainment. Messina is a town filled with many local celebrities: the players that bring glory to the town, and the one that trained them all, Coach Eddie Rake. Is it responsible for the population to expect so much from their own children? One of the most painful things about the book is that the kids believed that they needed to begin acting like they were the elite. Neely Crenshaw, widely considered to be one of the best players to ever come out of Messina, was just a kid who loved his childhood sweetheart and had an abnormal talent for football. The standards of society told him that he needed to portray his role. In order to be the

She watched the one she loved change because that was what he was expected to do. Cameron was capable of seeing through the mask. She had known that there was more to him than the football player and she hated Rake for telling Neely that it was the most important part of his character. By the time that Neely had come to the realization that he wasn’t just the town’s ‘All-American’ it was much too late for any attempt to try to reclaim his personality that he relinquished in order to become the idol that he was viewed as. Neely is even seen this way by the people that he personally played with, a legend even among the