The Art of Fielding Reflection Number Three

Struggling relationships seem to be the main theme of this segment of The Art of Fielding; Mike and Henry’s, Mike and Pella’s, Pella and David’s, Affenlight and Owen’s. I’m noticing a major trend in all of these relationships, and their common strain of complexities: almost all the arguments and insecurities in each relationship seem to come from a lack of communication and closure. First of all, Henry and Mike. Henry is struggling- but refuses to admit it at face value- and Mike is trying to mentor him and be a good friend, but also refuses to admit his friend is struggling (at least to his face). For all his loyalty and devotion to Henry, I cannot fathom how this philosopher and reader of wisdom cannot see the virtue in being straight up with his buddy now and talk to Henry’s about his fears firmly and have him just take one game off (even if his longtime hero and family are there), as he and the team obviously need it. Now on to Mike and Pella. We see their relationship start to struggle when Mike starts talking about Henry’s failures (which he really shouldn’t have done to begin with at that specific time) and when Pella actually proposes to have a personal trainer or give Henry money, Mike begins feeling defensive, that Pella is brandishing her superior financial status or trying to squeeze into Mike and Henry’s relationship (which he fails to tell Pella). Then Pella jumps the gun and tells Mike that her husband will be at the college tomorrow, and then one thing leads to another, they suddenly start saying ugly things at each other for no good reason, and then Pella leaves, and is forced to meet the next day… David. Now, when I got to the part of the book where David was trying to convince Pella to go back home, insinuating both that she was unfit for her environment and vice versa, I felt like it was similar to the Disney movie Tangled in which the evil witch-mother realizes her daughter has finally escaped, so she manipulates events and makes Rapunzel’s surroundings to appear much worse than they actually are, just like what David was doing to Pella when she felt restrained and had to live in a rather isolated, somewhat-gloomy environment. Now for President Affenlight and Owen. Affenlight, even though he instigated the relationship he now has with Owen, seems to now be completely insecure over how Owen views him, and broods continually on whatever slight he imagines Owen has committed against him, even though he could and should just talk to him instead. For their age and talents, all these people seem to prefer brooding and arguing to just being sensible and talking through things and voicing their insecurities. That’s supposed to be the major upside of a relationship: your spouse or partner or friend is supposed to back you up or encourage you (unless they are doing something wrong, in which case we are talking constructive criticism and tough love). Finally, as a sidenote: I have a bad feeling about the big game Henry is about to play. We are only three-fifths done with the novel, and we all know that conflict in books does not end in the middle, with a long happy ending afterwards. But, we shall see.

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