The Art Of Fielding Relationships Essay

Relationships are what make humans strong, but what if those same interactions lead to one’s failure? Relationships, failure and perfection are central themes threaded throughout Chad Harbach’s novel, The Art of Fielding. The friendship between Henry Skrimshander and Mike Schwartz starts off like any other healthy functional friendship, but quickly transforms into obsessing over perfection and one another. This growing friendship between Henry and Mike is better defined as a codependent relationship. In which, Mike and Henry care more about the other person than themselves. Their mutual goal of perfection pushes both of them into addictions, failure and mental issues. The codependent relationship between Henry and Mike drives both characters

into failure and unrealistic expectations of themselves.
Mike and Henry’s relationship leads Henry to becoming a self-destructive failure. When Henry first arrived at Wettish as a scrawny freshman, he was completely lost without the guidance of Mike;
“Remember when he arrived at Westish, friendless and adrift, and Schwartz, who’d brought him here, who’d led Henry to expect he would guide him, had left him hanging for twelve long lonely weeks before he’d finally called … back then Henry felt too pitifully grateful to mention his distress, but now the pain of those early days broke over him” (377).
Henry was beholden indebted to Mike for rescuing him from his small town.

Henry leaving gave him the opportunity to create a better life for himself, which is ironic since his relationship with Mike ultimately ruins his future. Nevertheless, Henry viewed Mike as a savior and suffered through “twelve long lonely weeks before he’d finally called”. The language used by Harbach to describe Henry's original feelings about Mike, portrays Mikes as some sort of religious prophet. He felt isolated and alone and when he reconciled with Mike, Henry worshiped him. The pain Henry encounters during his time without Mike was the first sign that Henry's mental health was weakened by their relationship. Henry did anything and everything to please Mike and as a result of his obedience, Mike adored Henry. Mike enables Henry’s addictive behavior by giving him positive feedback for his obsessive behavior. He pushes Henry during the baseball season to his breaking point, his first error. When Henry makes his first mistake, to end his record breaking streak, he cannot cope with the failure. Mike coaches Henry to believe that achieving perfection is the sole purpose of his life. Henry not being able to achieve the goal set by Mike results in Henry falling into a dark depression and anorexia. Instead of Mike turning to a professional for help, he believed that he could save Henry. Similarly to what he did with Henry’s obsession over perfection, Mike enabled Henry’s self destructive

behavior.
Henry is the center of Mike’s life, not Pella, school or even his own success. Mike risks his own health to continue playing and training with Henry. He only wants the best for himself and Henry, “His life could wait. Henry needed him, and the Harpooners needed Henry. That was all he had to know” (203). Mike would do anything in his power to support Henry, even put himself through unnecessary pain. His knees are beyond repair and becomes addicted to painkillers to try to deal with the constant pain. The painkiller masks his injury, which allows him to continue playing and keep his relationship with Henry. In addition, Mike risks his own future in order to help Henry; “Schwartz had a tendency to show off, throw in old foreign words with letter Henry couldn’t even find in Microsoft Word. Cheating would get him kicked off the team and maybe out of Westish” (208). If either Mike or Henry was caught cheating, they “would get kicked off the team and maybe out of Westish”. Mike was willing to risk his academic future for Henry, since Mike’s whole existence within the relationship was to be the person to push Henry to greatness. Mike holds himself and Henry to ridiculously high standards. Mike’s high standards destroy his own chances of perfection. Since he only applied to the top law schools in the nation, he get accepted into any of the schools. Harbach demonstrates the physiological damage that Henry and Mike's relationship had on Mike’s future. The easiest way to be able to stay with Henry without openly quitting was to purposefully apply to schools he could not get into. The failure of not getting into law school furthered his obsession with Henry because Mike failed at his own dream.
The toxic relationship leads to Mike and Henry both passing on perfection to stay with each other. Mike and Henry could not function without each other. Their dependency on each prevents them finding from success. Individual success meant that their relationship would be over. If Henry was drafted into the major leagues, he would have the leave Westish and Mike. Similarly if Mike got accepted into a law school, he would have to leave Westish and Henry. They both subconsciously sabotaged their future so they could stay with each other. Harbach uses Mike’s dialogue with Henry to further show Henry dependence, “If you mail that contract, you can think about yourself, your game, twenty-four -seven. If you’re here, different story’”(509). Henry had an offer from the Cardinals, which is remarkable since he barely played towards the end of season, but gave it up to stay with Mike at Westish.
Mike and Henry truly believed that they could have achieved perfection, but their relationship self destructed their own goals. Henry fails to become the perfect player and Mike fails to be the person to create the perfect player. They could not bare to lose each other, so they sabotaged their own dreams. Failure was the only solution to their approaching future. Perfection is not a human quality. Their unhealthy relationship leads to underachieving by both parties and the common unrealistic dream of perfection. Whether it’s Hannah Montana’s song “Nobody's Perfect” or just common sense, most people realize that perfection is an untamable goal.