Ray Kinsella's Small Iowa Farm example essay topic

Shoeless Joe. P. Kinsella William Patrick Kinsella was born may 25, 1935 in Edmonton, Alberta. His father was a contractor and his mother was a printer. As an only child, Kinsella spent his early years in a log cabin near Lac Ste. -Anne, sixty miles northwest of Edmonton. He rarely saw other children and completed grades one through four by correspondence. ' Having no contact with children, I considered myself a small adult' (Authors and writers for young adults, 130-131).

His parents, grandmother, and aunt read to each other and told stories, Kinsella began writing fantasies when he was five or six; mostly baseball fantasies. Why did Kinsella like to write about baseball so much? The family moved to Edmonton when he was ten, and his father, a former Semi pro baseball player began taking him to baseball games. In eighth grade, Kinsella won a prize for 'Diamond Doom,' a baseball mystery.

At age eighteen, he published his first story, a science fiction tale about a totalitarian society, in the Alberta Civil Service Bulletin. Kinsella worked as a government clerk, manager of a retail credit company, account executive for the City of Edmonton, owner of a n Italian restaurant, and taxicab driver while attending the University of Victoria where he received a B.A. in 1974. Then he attended a writer's workshop at the University of Iowa, earning a master of fine arts degree in 1978. He taught at the University of Calgary from 1978 to 1983. But he hated the academic life so he quit to write full time. Kinsella was married to Mildred Clay from 1965 to 1978.

He married the writer Ann Knight in 1978 and they settled in White Rock, British Columbia and Iowa City, Iowa when not traveling to attend major league baseball games. Kinsella has two daughters, Shannon and Erin. In 1982 Kinsella wrote a best selling novel, 'Shoeless Joe'. 'Kinsella 1982 mythical baseball fable drew on the author's long-term love of the game' (Wilson, Kathleen.

229). This book is about a middle-aged man that lives on a farm with his wife, Annie and daughter, Karin. One day when this man, Ray Kinsella, is walking through his cornfields he hears the voice of an major league baseball announcer. It says, ' if you build it, he will come'. Ray soon finds out that 'it' is a baseball field and 'he' is Rays father who used to play ball. His wife Annie is skeptical.

The farm is going under and Ray feels that he has to go find this man named J. D, Salinger. Ray has built the field already now this is what he has to do. Ray sets out to Boston to find Salinger. Salinger is reluctant at first but he soon realizes that something special is going to happen so he goes with Ray back to Iowa.

On Rays magic field Shoeless Joe, an all time great baseball player and Rays hero, and the 1937 Chicago White Sox play. They are ghost but as real as life to Ray, his family, and Salinger. The 1937 White Sox were banned from baseball for throwing the World Series. Although Shoeless Joe Jackson played superb. Mark, Annie's brother is consistently hounding Ray to sell the farm because he has no more money but Ray is reluctant, Mark does not see the baseball players. While arguing on selling the farm, Mark knocks Karin off the bleachers and is un conscience.

All of the sudden, a baseball player who used to be a doctor steps over the imaginary barrier, out of the field, turns old again and saves Karin. Mark now can see the players and urges Ray not to see the farm! Earlier Ray heard a voice that said 'they will come'. Ray soon learns that 'they' are people from all over the country.

They will come for no reason at all. They will pay to see the game and this is how Rays is going to save the farm. This is very special. At the end of the book, Rays father finally appears to see Ray and his family. After they talk Ray turns to leave and his dad says ' wanna catch with me?' (Kinsella W.P. 267). Rays mission was complete, his goal has been met.

This book inspired the movie Field of Dreams. 'Kinsella claims that Shoeless Joe is not a novel about baseball, but rather about the power of love in all directions' (Sample, Micheal. 176. ).

I think that the theme becomes pretty obvious. For example, when Ray Kinsella lists the loves of his life: his wife, his daughter, Iowa, and the great god of baseball. 'J.D. Salinger, a fictionalized characterization of The Catcher in the Rye author, also is a great lover of baseball' (177). In it's greater implications, the love of baseball is characterized by those old-time players who have died but who mysteriously appear on to play on Rays field and all of them love baseball for what it is. Kinsella wrote many Cree Indian stories which bring out similar, if any social concerns in the book. I think that Kinsella hints that the world changes rapidly and that this often changes the irreplaceable events in the world. In the novels plot, Ray Kinsella's small Iowa farm is in danger of being taken over by a bigger more powerful farming company; a company that has already taken out nearby farms.

But overall I think that Shoeless Joe is just for entertainment. Kinsella admits: ' I am an old fashioned storyteller. I try to make people laugh and cry. A fiction writers duty is to entertain. If you then sneak in something profound or symbolic, so much the better' ('W.P. Kinsella'. April 22, 2000.

Online Site).