”The First Kiss” by John Updike

In John Updikes excerpt of The First Kiss, Updike uses metaphors and other rhetorical devices to convey the audiences attitude of the opening season baseball game. The audiences clearly have great interest of the environment around them as they optimistically keep their eyes glued to the players. The way that Updike combines sentences along with the sentence structure is also support as Updike shows the audiences point of view towards the game. The use of metaphor, syntax and diction show the attitude of the audiences at the opening season of a baseball event.

Throughout the excerpt from The First Kiss by John Updike, the use of metaphor is evident. An example of this is Our eyeballs grew calluses (lines 14-15). This shows not only a single persons reaction but rather a big crowds, which shows that the audiences were intrigued in the game. Following that statement it was said in line 16 Hobson throw to the stars Stars are something that one could observe with great pleasure and as Updike described that the ball was being towards the stars shows that there was interest in the game as the game is being made into a beautiful piece of nature. Line 30-32 also show how the game went by comparing it to a show string as the short stop was able to get a cheap homerun. These examples of metaphors show how the audiences were paying a great amount of attention to the baseball game.

As Metaphor was used by John Updike to convey how the audiences are happy at the game, the same is proven by his use of both syntax and diction. Line 54-60 shows stats of both teams each at .000 or .00 and how the next move of any of the players had the potential of changing that. This shows the audiences interest in the game because Updike goes in detail about it using a long sentence and the structure showing how first the two teams are in a battle then how both teams have .000 or .00 stats and how the outcome could be affected. Towards the end of the first column Updike tends to be a bit sarcastic but as the piece progresses it is seen that he himself becomes more serious. Although sarcasm is seen in lines 55- 60 as the opening game is like the players virginity (there stats).

Line 25 is an example of Updikes sarcasm as he says The Noble Lost Cause as something may have went wrong. The last two paragraphs also show the audiences interest because through the use of diction, syntax Updike was able to show how the players shouldnt play for money but for the game, which also shows the interest of the audiences. A technique that greatly conveys how the players attitude regarding the game is the use of us and we throughout the piece unifying Updike and the audience of the game. Updikes use of syntax and diction show how the audiences are very intrigued in the baseball game.

John Updikes excerpt of The First Kiss shows the audiences interest about the baseball game. This connection is established by the use of diction, syntax and metaphor. The audiences are clearly happy to be at the baseball game.