Almost every school has a sports hero, someone who is
natural at the game. Like the glittering stars whose brilliance fades overnight, some
of these bright heroes seem to dim after graduation. Flick is such a person. Note how
the first three lines act as a symbol of his life:
Pearl Avenue runs past the high-school
lot,
Bends with the trolley tracks, and stops, cut
off
Before it has a chance to go two
blocks.
In the same way,
Flick's life has been "cut off" before it has had a chance to go further than High
School. Although he was "the best" and "The ball loved Flick," his life now is wasted
working in a gas station, because "He never learned a trade." Although his hands "are
fine and nervous" this clearly makes no difference whatsoever to his undemanding and
demeaning job now. Updike is thus making a sad point about so many students who seem to
have such promise but whose future life harshly belies the dreams they may have once
had.
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