Fame, Fastball, Forgiveness: The Use of Sympathy in “Calico Joe” by John Grisham. Diego Corcuera-Loya 9th Grade

Not all of us may like baseball; in fact, there are some that hate the sport, but regardless of one’s feelings towards this sport, a good story is universally pleasing. Having a strong bond between the reader and the characters in a story is crucial in making the book a much more pleasurable read. John Grisham develops “Calico Joe”, a story that radiates strong feelings of admiration, hate, disgust, forgiveness, despair, but the one he focuses the on most is sympathy. In order to make the reader engage more with the story, John Grisham allows the reader to be able to construct a powerful feeling of sympathy for the main character, Joe Castle.

Grisham begins his process of boning the reader with Joe Castle by first introducing him into the story. As soon as Joe Castle is introduced to the story, the reader cannot help but awe at Joe’s tremendous skill as the batter. In the second chapter, Grisham details Castle’s success and what led to his abrupt and sudden growth of fame. These chapters are of great significance to the plot since they show how and why Joe Castle became that significant of a figure. “Now a record [being able to hit a two homeruns on the first two pitches he saw] belonged only to him and one other” (Grisham 10)...