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

person that society saw him as, he became the all- American. He dropped the girl who he loved for the girl that he saw as a commodity, a ploy to further both his own desires and status. “Football was king” (Grisham 103) and Neely was the king of football. He was praised so much that it was no longer a healthy situation for him and he was left unable to function when he was no longer able to play. The people of Messina put so much pressure on Neely in an attempt to make him a diamond and all they succeeded in doing was insuring that he had a heart of stone.
Messina only sees the star quality, with little to no regard for the personality of the players. Neely is one who would like nothing more than to forget the days that he carried that ball, yet it is that that everyone will remember about him. Everytime someone walks into the local cafe, they see a large number of pictures including “large black-and-whites of the greatest of Spartans.” They don't know him, they know the player that he was. In the book there are times that it becomes unclear whether Neely truly even knows himself. One can imagine how painful it was for Neely to be stared at and gaped at when he finally makes his way back to the town where both his fondest and darkest memories lie, waiting to be awoken. Neely is the protagonist of the story, which allows the reader to be able to tell that there is more to him than just the fact that he was once a great quarterback before being injured. He has faults and flaws, regrets and memories. Despite this, the town only ever saw him as one of the great and one could assume that this is one of the more prominent reasons that he decided to turn his back on Messina and only reluctantly return when there was news that the Coach Rake was on his deathbed.
Seeing as how Neely was one of the people who was praised and pressured beyond what anyone should ever receive, he became disillusioned with the town and saw it for what it was. Football put Messina on the map and was a cause for pride, but it got to a point when the town took it too far. It became a chance for the former team to vicariously relive their glory days, and it was the same year after year. This made the town a very different place for those who were already disenchanted with the game and what it brought, as they could see the destruction wrought for what it was. They saw injustice in the town but knew they were helpless against it. Neely's former girlfriend, Cameron was one who considered themselves part of this group
Cameron is another who was deeply affected by the concept of fame in Messina, although in a completely different way.

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

legendary.
Praise creates a pressure that makes those who are pressured start to believe that they are in fact what everyone makes them out to be. Neely was indeed one of the best players to ever come out of Messina, but he made a mistake when he thought he had to adopt the persona of an all-star. He was expected to be the football player that dated the prettiest cheerleader and conformed to the standards that had been set in place long before he was ever introduced to even the concept of them, although in Messina he was likely to have been influenced by the notion of what quarterbacks were expected to grow up to be at a very young age. All of the young women of Messina were taught that they were supposed to be there to please those that brought the town fame and had their own successes belittled and squandered. One could assume that this is why Cameron chose to be different and to get away from Messina and its toxic atmosphere. Expectations ran so high that the town forgot that the players were just kids, and not just a name to be dropped in years to come. Even with the death of Rake, it seems unlikely that the town would ever relinquish it's love for football and the cycle of status will continue to repeat itself.