The Peripetia

 

Part 4: Conflicts: 200-250

Quite many conflicts can be found in this book, both external and perhaps the most important, internal conflicts. Sam finds himself in a situation in where he is forced to make decisions on his own as he was forced into turning mature as he became a father which starts a conflict within him.          An example would be when Sam tries to turn to Tony Hawk who appears as an imaginary father figure who fails to assist him as he is simply a poster.

 ’’It was time to move on. If he was so great, how come he couldn’t help me? I’d been treating him like a god but he wasn’t a god. He was nothing. Just a skater.’’

Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby, p 85

Sam can also be found insecure at a couple of times which shows an internal conflict as he is in fact conflicting with parts of himself. The many internal conflicts with him over the matter of being dedicated to his son’s future or not can be seen as the major theme in the book.

 ‘’I knew I was being a coward, but sometimes you have to be a coward, don’t you?’’                        

Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby, p 110

‘’Could having a baby be worse than this? And the answer I gave myself was, No it could not.’’

Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby, p 125

He also shows similar internal conflicts as he questions himself about sleeping with Alicia was such a great idea, this shows a sign of maturity with trying to judge your actions.

‘’I can’t be bad. Maybe you think that sleeping with Alicia was bad, but I didn’t feel that way, so it doesn’t count as badness. I’m talking about things where I know I’m in the wrong’’.

Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby, p 47.

Numerous of external conflicts can be found over the book, the major one would perhaps be between Sam and Alicia and her parents which shows that they have grown up under completely different circumstances. This can be shown when for example when Alicia makes fun out of Sam’s attempt to befriend her.

’’Listen. You are gorgeous. But the problem is, you know it,

and you think you can treat people like dirt because of it. Well, I’m sorry but I am not really that desperate.’’

Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby, p 24

Sam’s feelings about Alicia’s dad questioning him about the future but were cut off by Alicia’s mother shows that they are believed to have completely different futures which Sam dislikes.

‘’But that was their attitude with me – don’t mention the future, because I didn’t have one. And then we all had to pretend that not having a future was okay.’’

Which later leads to the conflict when Alicia’s dad finds out that she is pregnant and speaks to  Sam’s mother in a way claiming that Sam ruined their daughters future.

‘’Well. There is a great deal about this whole thing that is unfortunate. But at the moment we are worried about Alicia’s Future.’’ / Alicia’s dad.’’

‘’Not Sam’s? said my mum’’

Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby, p 162.

Some conflicts can be seen as signs of immaturity in Sam or his father by selfishness.

‘’I love this story, said Mum. We hear it every year. And every year there’s no place either for Sam or his mother. There was only one person who suffered for his first-born. And it was the man who ran all the way up the Holloway Road.’’

Reponse from his dad:

‘’Last time I looked, woman hadn’t completely taken over the world, said my dad.’’

Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby, p 162

‘’She was offering me a pizza and a film. But in another way, she was just trying to stop me doing what I wanted to do, and she knew, and I knew it.’’

Connected with:

‘’My mum didn’t want me to be with Alicia all the time. She started to worry about it after a couple of weeks.’’

Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby p 47.

‘’And then I realized she was serious. She actually wanted us to go and see Brokeback Mountain. We already started calling one of the science teachers at school Brokeback.’’

Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby p 51.

Part 3: Environment 150-200

 As the book plays out in a common city and the author rarely actually describes the surroundings but when he does it is made through the main characters way of expressing himself. When something is described in the book the author likes using metaphors to show the emotions Sam have. The looks of things are also often described very shortly; such as ‘’pretty’ or using a comparison while using a metaphor.

''His room was huge, and it didn't smell of fish; it smelled of some kind of chemical that must have been used to kill Germans in the war or something.''

Slam, 2007. Nick Hornby, p 124

It seems like the author felt it was unnecessary to describe the environments as it is played out in a common urban environment. The imagining of the looks of things would vary a lot depending on the reader, if for example an African farmer who have never set his foot in a high populated environment then he would have a very hard time to imagine the surroundings and would perhaps have a completely different picture of the book.

 As mentioned earlier the only actual thing which makes you understand his mood is that he describes them using a comparison which is no big surprise as the book is a retelling by him. 

‘’It was like a computer game, getting whizzed into the future. You had to think on your feet, really quick. You were driving fast down a straight road and then suddenly something was coming straight at you and you had to swerve.’’

Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby, p 101

The general environment bounces between happy and depressing as the book starts out quite happily while in the middle it starts to become a bit sad as the pregnancy appears to have ruined both Alicia's and Sam's future in school. It can be argued early fathership can be lucky or not but as book is a third person narrative told from first person perspective a lot of emotions are put into the texts. As early parentage can be either negative or positive pending on the reader one cannot stop asking themselves if it really is as bad as it seems, most people spend their early adult life looking for that hot ‘’one’’ they can spend their time with but as they appear to have feeling for each other which might be the reason why Alicia persistently wishes to keep the baby might simply be because she wishes to spend her life with Sam. In Alicia’s perspective this can be a happy story as she chose this faith.

Part 2. 50-150 pagish: Characters

The character that will be centered in this log is Alicia; she is one of the main characters in the book so far and was introduced early in the book. Her age is said to be similar to Sam’s and Sam was not her first guy to start a relationship with.

Alicia is described as very gorgeous and quickly became Sam’s girlfriend. She lives with her old and successful parents in a fancy house. Sam’s mother is a friend of Alicia’s mother and they meet through them during a party at Alicia’s house.

Alicia is apparently quite popular and the reason why she chooses to have a relationship with Sam is a bit unclear besides her saying that she likes him; it might simply be because Sam didn’t just simply want to have sex with her but rather just spend time with her. She does neither appear as clever nor dumb despite her clever parents as she is not doing very well in school but still never shown any signs of stupidity. Alicia wishes to become a model rather than studying during her early life. When they first meet at the party Alicia acted like Sam was just trying to get her in bed and she was being a bit unsocial.

                                      ‘’Listen. You are gorgeous. But the problem is, you know it,

                                        and you think you can treat people like dirt because of it’’

                                                                   Sam when he first meets Alicia.

                                                                                                                                                                    Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby, p 24.

One can see Alicia as a bit of the opposite of a slag, she appears to be more reserved as she would only trust certain people. Later in the book Alicia appears to have become pregnant and the theme quickly goes from a romance story into a life story. Alicia also says that she wishes to keep the baby despite Sam believes it would turn his life upside down the same way it happened to his mother who had a very painful life until recently as she had to educate herself and raise Sam. Despite Alicia and Sam had broken up just before she claimed she was pregnant she seems to show strong feelings for Sam, for example how she wishes to keep their baby and raise it together. So far it is hard for one to comment this book as most of the content is quite casual and normal which perhaps was on purpose by the author to get you deeper into the book as you can see yourself in Sam.

 Part 1, page 1-50ish

This is a analysis of the book Slam which is written by Nick Hornby who strangely enough is quite unknown despite his previous popular titles.

Sam is about a boy in his teens struggling with his future. His dedication to skateboarding is shown clearly during the first chapters. The author Nick Hornby shows a very interesting way of writing the book as it appears as a first person biography and you get an insight of his way of thinking. The way Nick Hornby manage to recreate feelings and emotions gives a very satisfying reading experience.

The main character of the book is Sam, Sam lives with his 32 year old mother who obviously got Sam at a very low age which creates a very interesting story as they can understand each other a lot better as the gap is shorter than usual parents.

Love instantly appears to be one of the main themes in this book, Sam who never had a serious relationship before suddenly ends up with being paired with Alicia, who he quickly falls in love with. Sam who is unsure about his future as his mother got pregnant at his age. Sam surprised that Alicia chooses to have a relationship with him although Sam doesn’t doubt she could get any guy she wanted. Alice and Sam seems to share to faith of an unsure future, Sam’s dream is to become a professional skater while Alicia wants to be a model, both of those jobs cannot be guaranteed. 

Bump