Mason Faux
English 1109 at 10:30, M-W
10-5-2020
Journal 4
One theme that Maurice hints at in this chapter is that at the end of the day people have a job to do and sometimes that might get in the way of other people. During the investigations on him after they had won the national championship, he felt like Archie Griffin the President of the OSU Alumni Association could have helped him out and got a result that didn’t end in him being terminated from OSU. While all the lawyers were sitting there asking him questions Archie was just sitting there and this was significant to him because Maurice looked up to him since he was a former OSU running back who won 2 Heisman trophies. He felt like they were brothers but he understood why he wouldn’t say anything since it could have hurt his reputation. Archie is a good guy to this day but Maurice mentions him a lot throughout the story and chapter.
Another theme he talks about during this chapter is that it is easy to go back into your bad habits. After he was terminated from OSU and wasn’t able to go back to the team he picked up right where he was when he was 14 selling drugs and hustling. This is all he knows how to do it’s like it ran in the family since his brother was in prison for doing the same thing. The only two things he’s known how to do is play football and hustle and when football was taken away that only left one option. You can feel his pain when he said “ After I left OSU, this is when the depression hit, 100%.”( One and Done Pg. 161) This is where I think his writing was at his best. You can feel his pain in his writing and it makes you feel where he’s coming from.
All my life I’ve pretty much had the same group of friends give or take a couple of people who have slowly drifted away as time went on. One friend in particular that I have been really close with throughout the year’s and his name is Liam Dennis. He’s one of the smartest and most hardworking people I know even from a young age. He’s currently running cross, indoor and outdoor track for the University of Butler in Indianapolis. He was number 2 in our class and a star athlete, but just watching him over the years has made me want to work hard myself. Over the years I have tried to match his work ethic and just giving my all in everything I do. Whether it be school, work, or just anything he’s made me want to give it my all and this has been going on since I met him back in 5th grade.
No matter what way I look at it I don’t think that I can relate to Maurice. I am just some white kid who lives in a very small town where I haven’t seen any violence and have had good role models throughout my entire life. While Maurice grew up in a city where violence was very common and it was cool to be in the streets doing bad things. His mother wasn’t there very often since she had to make money for the family its just kind of hard to relate to him. Once he got very serious about football and stopped doing gang-related stuff I can relate to him more. He was just a hard-working person working towards his dream which is what I’m doing now and nobody will stop me.
Hi Mason I definitely agree with the themes you listed, I think the most important one you wrote was probably about going back to bad habits. This is turning point in Claretts life, where he is going to go back to the streets and start making bad decisions again. Sometimes I wonder how different his life would have been if it weren't for the investigation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you its hard to relate to Clarett, growing up in a Nice school disrict and having the oppurtunties that alot of people dont is a advantage to people, academicly, and even through sports you are just offered with much more chances. It was hard for Maurice to get out of the streets and what OSU did to him was take him away from that and then just put them right back on, So it has me wondering were they just using him for his talents and just planning on putting him back where he came from.
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