I believe that Roy's extreme hunger is symbolic of his ambitions and desires in not only baseball, but also life. Roy is ravenous for home runs and victory and while on his eating rampage, Roy also embarks on a hitting rampage. Roy talks of shattering every record in baseball, being rookie of the year, and even though he's only in his first season, being in the hall of fame. These are huge pinnacles to overcome in his hero's journey, but Roy remains extremely ambitious. During this time, Roy also makes significant progress with women and even thinks about his future with both Memo and Iris. Roy is very ambitions carry over to women as well. One thing that I found interesting was that Roy's hunger, or symbolically ambition, started when the letter from Iris was mentioned. I believe that this letter could have sparked Roy's hunger, and his hunger has been sustained since he has not yet open it. I predict that upon the opening of the letter, Roy's hunger will stop.
Roy's eating habits are just how he has been approaching life. He can never get enough and always wants more. Besides being similar to his lifestyle, I also believe his eating habits help make feel Roy more macho. Eating enormous amounts of food is always associated with "manliness" and recently Roy might be starting to feel a little emasculated because he has been going after Memo but she is unresponsive. So when Roy eats obscene amounts of food it helps him to feel manlier. However I think the most important takeaway from his obsession is that it is a symbol for what will happen to Roy in the future. Roy became so obsessed with eating and food, it eventually led to his downfall when he collapsed in Memo's room. Similarly Roy will become so obsessed with becoming great that he will eventually "collapse" again.
Roy's habits around food are the same as he approaches baseball and his ambition around women. The more Roy eats at the table is a parallel to how badly he wants to shatter all baseball records and as well how he longs to sleep with Memo. It is also interesting to see how Memo's change of affection in Roy has completely changed him. While Roy was spending time with Iris in the previous chapter, he referred to her as shapely and curvy, however once Memo has shown some interest in him, he starts describing her as big and a grandmother, something he could never be involved with. This just proves how Memo has complete control of Roy's life and that her actions toward him show how he composes himself and acts throughout the novel.
I think that Roy's obsession with food extends from his character being derived from the image of Babe Ruth. The fact that he eats so much food - not to mention that his food choice is fairly unhealthy - that he becomes inflicted with some sudden illness is analogous to Babe Ruth's bellyache, better known as "the bellyache heard 'round the world." Both of these bellyaches came from unknown origins, but it is clearly suspected that they arose from an excess of food. Roy's obsession and illness also reminds me of the phrase "too much of a good thing," which actually means that things in excess can end up doing harm. One could posit that Roy's hunger for food is a metaphor for his hunger to be with Memo. If this is true, then his infatuation has reached a dangerous breaking point. Although Roy is so close to attaining Memo, he has finally overloaded on the chase, and I believe that is a sign that Memo is really not the one for Roy.
I think Roy's insatiable hunger reflects his constant desire for more. Roy is never content; even after accomplishing something great, he immediately creates a new goal to strive for. We see this in his baseball career, with him constantly crusading to break more records and win more fame. We see this in his love life, with him not able to settle for Iris, who seems lovely, and instead chasing after Memo. When he eats, he is not content with just being full. He keeps on eating; keeps on going for more. This may very well be his tragic flaw.
I agree with Nate, that Roy's hunger is a symbol of his unsatisfaction. Throughout the novel, we have seen Roy constantly want what others have, or more thn what he has. In this situation, it comes from Iris versus Memo. Roy had a fantastic experiance with Iris, something that seemed to forshadow his success and happiness later in the book. However, being immature and driven by impulse, he continues to lust after Memo. Even though he is aware that something is strange about her, and that something seems to be missing, he still goes after her. The fact that he was with Iris once, but only once, shows a lack of completion in his relationship with her. This unsatisfaction is being reflected in his eating habbits, as he never feels "full", because of his lack of fulfillment. While Iris is balanced, like healthy eating habits, Memo is unhealthy for him, as shown when he got sick. (Sorry for misspelled words, spellcheck isn't working)
As people have said before, Roy's insatiable hunger symbolizes his unlimited ambition on the baseball field and his endless lust towards Memo. I don't think it is any coincidence that this voracity arises at a crucial point in Roy's career, just before the climax on his story cycle. Even after Roy has pretty much won over Memo and led the Knights to unprecedented heights of success, thereby achieving his main goals, there's no sense of fulfillment. He still dithers between Iris and Memo; he has few thoughts of the team or how much a World Series ring would mean to each Knight, including Pop. Even after achieving the impossible, he gives no indication of satisfaction, and the reader is left with the impression he will never find any. On a different note, in Arthurian legends, excessive eating at foreign feasts sometimes signaled a knight's downfall, due to poisons, drugs or magic in the food. (One example is the legend of Sir Accolon, if anyone is interested.) Obviously, none of that is in what Roy eats, but the parallel of food as a danger, something bad, is interesting.
I think Roy's insatiable hunger symbolizes his crazy ambitions with baseball glory and women. Instead of continuing on with Iris, a perfect woman for Roy, he decides to continue blindly pushing on for Memo who gives him only trouble. Roy keeps pushing on with no foresight in his relationship with Memo, his focus on statistics, and his eating. He does not see the consequences that can come with each focus. While continuing lusting after Memo, Roy leaves behind Iris, a girl who would be perfect for him. In his focus on stats, Roy ignores the fans and in this chapter even discloses that he hates them, shying away from the great advice Iris gave Roy about becoming a hero for the fans instead of being selfish on the field. Roy's hunger is a symbol of his shortsightedness, as he eats so much with Memo that he becomes sick, his play temporarily goes downhill, and he all but forgets Iris, who helped Roy out of his slump and enabled him to continue his hero's journey.
Like others have said, I think that Roy's obsession with food signifies that he is never satisfied. He is always wanting more; more fame, more glory, more home runs, more women. He thinks that his life is not fulfilled in its present state, he needs something better. He can never be full. There is a quote on page 178, "He was gobbling it down and it gave him a feeling of having something and wanting it the same minute he was having it." Once he has achieved his goal, he is already looking for the next thing that he can accomplish. Nothing is never enough for his huge ambitions. It makes me wonder what he is really working towards. Is there anything that will be able to satisfy him, or will this pattern go on forever?
In an attempt to sound completely repetitive I think Roy's obsession with food is symbolic of his constant desire for more and how he is never satisfied. While his desire to be the best possible has helped him have such a successful career so far, this food problem might be a sign to come that his desire for more and how he is never truly satisfied will harm his career and attempt to be come successful. More importantly i believe that this sickness is setting Roy up for a chance to be a true hero and finally play for the team rather than himself.
As some of the others have said, Roy’s hunger signifies his desire for more, whether it is with Memo or on the baseball field. Where he is now is not enough; he wants to erase Bump from Memo’s mind and shatter all records in baseball. His hunger represents, as it relates to baseball, his desire to be the best, and now that he is so close he can only want it more. In the biography of Hank Aaron I’m reading, it said that basically nobody can be at the elite level of the sport without carrying their team to a World Series victory. For Roy, that is all that he wants, to be considered the best there ever was and for people to know his name. Now, with only one game to win for a trip to the World Series, his insatiable hunger is due to his desire for that elite company as one of the best to ever play the game of baseball.
More than anything, Roy's unbelievable hunger and need for food is very symbolic for his hunger for women and for the goals in his life. He wants fame more than anything and his hunger is representative of that. As he tries to erase Memo's mind of Bump his hunger plagues him as he tries to get her to love him back. I was actually thinking about the same quote that Adela used when i read the prompt, he has really turned around his life around i think. Where he used to look for fun and games, he has true ambitions and goals for his life now and after he accomplishes one, he sets out for the next.
I hate to be repetitive, but Roy's constant hunger is due to what he interprets as unsatisfaction. he has a hard time enjoying things in his life, what with his dislike of the fans and his constant troubles with Memo. He feels that he what he has is not enough, mostly because he is trying to compensate for the fact that he started his career so late, and thus has so little time. He feels that he must always have more, because he still wants to be the greatest player ever, but the only thing he found that he has control over is the amount of food he eats. He has spent a lot of time desiring things (namely fame and women) over the past few chapters, but almost never getting to have them. When he finally does get Memo at the end of this chapter, the fact that he overcompensated with food comes back to bite him in the ass (pardon my French).
I think that Roy is a nervous eater. Whenever something happens where Roy end up thinking super hard, there happens to be an immense amount of food, and he always takes advantage of the food he is given. I think that his eating habits are going to lead to his demise in the end. They have already proven to have a negative effect on Roy, considering the fact that he finally gets where he wants with Memo, and his stomach ruptures. I think that this obsession with food is going to make him gain a lot of weight, and due to the weight gain he is going to go into a huge slump and lose confidence in himself like he did a few sections back. The eating is going to take him out of his prime, and really effect his career in the long run
Roy’s hunger illuminates his desire for women and to be come better on the baseball field. The idea that Memo is not completely his bothers Hobbs a lot. Although Bump is dead, he still lingers around Memo's head making it difficult to seduce Memo. Although Rpy is playing at an exceptional level, the overeating is him wanting more. It is not enough just have win, but he has to lead this team to become champions. He believes that the only real thing he can control is the amount of food, but in reality he is wrong. In the end he is the result of his decisions.
Not to be reptitive, but I think Roy eats to fill a void that he feels is empty due to the lack of satisfaction in his life. His ambition and desore to be the greatest will only lead to disappointment and unsatisfaction. He works to be the greatest baseball player that ever played which is unrealistic to say the least.
I agree with Marshall that there is a connection between Roy's hunger and the letter he has from Iris. In this chapter Roy is starved the presence of Iris, and is ravenous for every kind of food he can get his hands on. I think that Roy's need for food is a way of covering up his real desire for Iris. Roy believes that he can't be with her because she is a "grandma", but in reality he needs her support. As soon as Roy reads the letter and is in contact with Iris again I believe that his hunger will decrease. I also think it's notable that Iris' last name is Lemon, so Malamud might be playing with the idea that she is food for Roy.
I believe that Roy's extreme hunger is symbolic of his ambitions and desires in not only baseball, but also life. Roy is ravenous for home runs and victory and while on his eating rampage, Roy also embarks on a hitting rampage. Roy talks of shattering every record in baseball, being rookie of the year, and even though he's only in his first season, being in the hall of fame. These are huge pinnacles to overcome in his hero's journey, but Roy remains extremely ambitious. During this time, Roy also makes significant progress with women and even thinks about his future with both Memo and Iris. Roy is very ambitions carry over to women as well. One thing that I found interesting was that Roy's hunger, or symbolically ambition, started when the letter from Iris was mentioned. I believe that this letter could have sparked Roy's hunger, and his hunger has been sustained since he has not yet open it. I predict that upon the opening of the letter, Roy's hunger will stop.
ReplyDeleteRoy's eating habits are just how he has been approaching life. He can never get enough and always wants more. Besides being similar to his lifestyle, I also believe his eating habits help make feel Roy more macho. Eating enormous amounts of food is always associated with "manliness" and recently Roy might be starting to feel a little emasculated because he has been going after Memo but she is unresponsive. So when Roy eats obscene amounts of food it helps him to feel manlier. However I think the most important takeaway from his obsession is that it is a symbol for what will happen to Roy in the future. Roy became so obsessed with eating and food, it eventually led to his downfall when he collapsed in Memo's room. Similarly Roy will become so obsessed with becoming great that he will eventually "collapse" again.
ReplyDeleteRoy's habits around food are the same as he approaches baseball and his ambition around women. The more Roy eats at the table is a parallel to how badly he wants to shatter all baseball records and as well how he longs to sleep with Memo. It is also interesting to see how Memo's change of affection in Roy has completely changed him. While Roy was spending time with Iris in the previous chapter, he referred to her as shapely and curvy, however once Memo has shown some interest in him, he starts describing her as big and a grandmother, something he could never be involved with. This just proves how Memo has complete control of Roy's life and that her actions toward him show how he composes himself and acts throughout the novel.
ReplyDeleteI think that Roy's obsession with food extends from his character being derived from the image of Babe Ruth. The fact that he eats so much food - not to mention that his food choice is fairly unhealthy - that he becomes inflicted with some sudden illness is analogous to Babe Ruth's bellyache, better known as "the bellyache heard 'round the world." Both of these bellyaches came from unknown origins, but it is clearly suspected that they arose from an excess of food.
ReplyDeleteRoy's obsession and illness also reminds me of the phrase "too much of a good thing," which actually means that things in excess can end up doing harm. One could posit that Roy's hunger for food is a metaphor for his hunger to be with Memo. If this is true, then his infatuation has reached a dangerous breaking point. Although Roy is so close to attaining Memo, he has finally overloaded on the chase, and I believe that is a sign that Memo is really not the one for Roy.
I think Roy's insatiable hunger reflects his constant desire for more. Roy is never content; even after accomplishing something great, he immediately creates a new goal to strive for. We see this in his baseball career, with him constantly crusading to break more records and win more fame. We see this in his love life, with him not able to settle for Iris, who seems lovely, and instead chasing after Memo. When he eats, he is not content with just being full. He keeps on eating; keeps on going for more. This may very well be his tragic flaw.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nate, that Roy's hunger is a symbol of his unsatisfaction. Throughout the novel, we have seen Roy constantly want what others have, or more thn what he has. In this situation, it comes from Iris versus Memo. Roy had a fantastic experiance with Iris, something that seemed to forshadow his success and happiness later in the book. However, being immature and driven by impulse, he continues to lust after Memo. Even though he is aware that something is strange about her, and that something seems to be missing, he still goes after her. The fact that he was with Iris once, but only once, shows a lack of completion in his relationship with her. This unsatisfaction is being reflected in his eating habbits, as he never feels "full", because of his lack of fulfillment. While Iris is balanced, like healthy eating habits, Memo is unhealthy for him, as shown when he got sick.
ReplyDelete(Sorry for misspelled words, spellcheck isn't working)
As people have said before, Roy's insatiable hunger symbolizes his unlimited ambition on the baseball field and his endless lust towards Memo. I don't think it is any coincidence that this voracity arises at a crucial point in Roy's career, just before the climax on his story cycle. Even after Roy has pretty much won over Memo and led the Knights to unprecedented heights of success, thereby achieving his main goals, there's no sense of fulfillment. He still dithers between Iris and Memo; he has few thoughts of the team or how much a World Series ring would mean to each Knight, including Pop. Even after achieving the impossible, he gives no indication of satisfaction, and the reader is left with the impression he will never find any.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, in Arthurian legends, excessive eating at foreign feasts sometimes signaled a knight's downfall, due to poisons, drugs or magic in the food. (One example is the legend of Sir Accolon, if anyone is interested.) Obviously, none of that is in what Roy eats, but the parallel of food as a danger, something bad, is interesting.
I think Roy's insatiable hunger symbolizes his crazy ambitions with baseball glory and women. Instead of continuing on with Iris, a perfect woman for Roy, he decides to continue blindly pushing on for Memo who gives him only trouble. Roy keeps pushing on with no foresight in his relationship with Memo, his focus on statistics, and his eating. He does not see the consequences that can come with each focus. While continuing lusting after Memo, Roy leaves behind Iris, a girl who would be perfect for him. In his focus on stats, Roy ignores the fans and in this chapter even discloses that he hates them, shying away from the great advice Iris gave Roy about becoming a hero for the fans instead of being selfish on the field. Roy's hunger is a symbol of his shortsightedness, as he eats so much with Memo that he becomes sick, his play temporarily goes downhill, and he all but forgets Iris, who helped Roy out of his slump and enabled him to continue his hero's journey.
ReplyDeleteLike others have said, I think that Roy's obsession with food signifies that he is never satisfied. He is always wanting more; more fame, more glory, more home runs, more women. He thinks that his life is not fulfilled in its present state, he needs something better. He can never be full. There is a quote on page 178, "He was gobbling it down and it gave him a feeling of having something and wanting it the same minute he was having it." Once he has achieved his goal, he is already looking for the next thing that he can accomplish. Nothing is never enough for his huge ambitions. It makes me wonder what he is really working towards. Is there anything that will be able to satisfy him, or will this pattern go on forever?
ReplyDeleteIn an attempt to sound completely repetitive I think Roy's obsession with food is symbolic of his constant desire for more and how he is never satisfied. While his desire to be the best possible has helped him have such a successful career so far, this food problem might be a sign to come that his desire for more and how he is never truly satisfied will harm his career and attempt to be come successful. More importantly i believe that this sickness is setting Roy up for a chance to be a true hero and finally play for the team rather than himself.
ReplyDeleteAs some of the others have said, Roy’s hunger signifies his desire for more, whether it is with Memo or on the baseball field. Where he is now is not enough; he wants to erase Bump from Memo’s mind and shatter all records in baseball. His hunger represents, as it relates to baseball, his desire to be the best, and now that he is so close he can only want it more. In the biography of Hank Aaron I’m reading, it said that basically nobody can be at the elite level of the sport without carrying their team to a World Series victory. For Roy, that is all that he wants, to be considered the best there ever was and for people to know his name. Now, with only one game to win for a trip to the World Series, his insatiable hunger is due to his desire for that elite company as one of the best to ever play the game of baseball.
ReplyDeleteMore than anything, Roy's unbelievable hunger and need for food is very symbolic for his hunger for women and for the goals in his life. He wants fame more than anything and his hunger is representative of that. As he tries to erase Memo's mind of Bump his hunger plagues him as he tries to get her to love him back. I was actually thinking about the same quote that Adela used when i read the prompt, he has really turned around his life around i think. Where he used to look for fun and games, he has true ambitions and goals for his life now and after he accomplishes one, he sets out for the next.
ReplyDeleteI hate to be repetitive, but Roy's constant hunger is due to what he interprets as unsatisfaction. he has a hard time enjoying things in his life, what with his dislike of the fans and his constant troubles with Memo. He feels that he what he has is not enough, mostly because he is trying to compensate for the fact that he started his career so late, and thus has so little time. He feels that he must always have more, because he still wants to be the greatest player ever, but the only thing he found that he has control over is the amount of food he eats. He has spent a lot of time desiring things (namely fame and women) over the past few chapters, but almost never getting to have them. When he finally does get Memo at the end of this chapter, the fact that he overcompensated with food comes back to bite him in the ass (pardon my French).
ReplyDeleteI think that Roy is a nervous eater. Whenever something happens where Roy end up thinking super hard, there happens to be an immense amount of food, and he always takes advantage of the food he is given. I think that his eating habits are going to lead to his demise in the end. They have already proven to have a negative effect on Roy, considering the fact that he finally gets where he wants with Memo, and his stomach ruptures. I think that this obsession with food is going to make him gain a lot of weight, and due to the weight gain he is going to go into a huge slump and lose confidence in himself like he did a few sections back. The eating is going to take him out of his prime, and really effect his career in the long run
ReplyDeleteRoy’s hunger illuminates his desire for women and to be come better on the baseball field. The idea that Memo is not completely his bothers Hobbs a lot. Although Bump is dead, he still lingers around Memo's head making it difficult to seduce Memo. Although Rpy is playing at an exceptional level, the overeating is him wanting more. It is not enough just have win, but he has to lead this team to become champions. He believes that the only real thing he can control is the amount of food, but in reality he is wrong. In the end he is the result of his decisions.
ReplyDeleteNot to be reptitive, but I think Roy eats to fill a void that he feels is empty due to the lack of satisfaction in his life. His ambition and desore to be the greatest will only lead to disappointment and unsatisfaction. He works to be the greatest baseball player that ever played which is unrealistic to say the least.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Marshall that there is a connection between Roy's hunger and the letter he has from Iris. In this chapter Roy is starved the presence of Iris, and is ravenous for every kind of food he can get his hands on. I think that Roy's need for food is a way of covering up his real desire for Iris. Roy believes that he can't be with her because she is a "grandma", but in reality he needs her support. As soon as Roy reads the letter and is in contact with Iris again I believe that his hunger will decrease. I also think it's notable that Iris' last name is Lemon, so Malamud might be playing with the idea that she is food for Roy.
ReplyDelete