- author is John Updike
- poem published in 1954
- grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania
- dad was a high school teacher, and took John to basketball games
- John noticed the basketball players were talented, but they often didn't look for further advancement and didn't pursue their dreams
- graduated from Harvard on a full scholarship
- poem is thought to have been written during the Cold War, which could suggest the reason behind the depressing atmosphere

Title: Ex-Basketball Player
- used to be someone important
- dream to be a basketball player, but that isn't possible anymore
- works at a gas station
- ex implying something he used to be, but now is not

Pearl Avenue is a short street that starts at at the local high school, and ends at Berth’s Garage. Flick Webb works at Berth’s Garage, which is an auto shop. Flick is so tall he reaches past the gas pumps. He used to be the best on his basketball team, the Wizards. In 1946 he broke the county record by scoring three hundred ninety points in one game. He moved easily with the ball. He once scored thirty-eight or forty points in one home game. His hands moved quickly. He never learned any skills for further advancement, so he just sells gas, checks oils, and changes tires. Sometimes he jokingly dribbles car parts. He handles the lug wrench with ease, but it does not matter much. After work, he goes to Mae’s Luncheonette which is a small, casual restaurant. He plays pinball, smokes cigarettes, and drinks soda. He rarely talks to the owner; instead he reminisces about who he was in high school.

Pearl Avenue runs past the high-school lot,/ Bends

with the trolley tracks, and stops, cut off/ Before it

has a chance to go two blocks,/ At Colonel

McComsky Plaza” (1-4)

This is metaphor to Flick’s life. He is successful

and famous in high school, but his fame suddenly

stops after he graduates. He now works in a

garage located at Colonel McComsky Plaza.



“nods/ Beyond her face toward bright

applauding tiers/ of Necco Wafers, Nibs, and Juju

Beads” (28-30)

The tiers are personified to be applauding fans in

the stands.

This quote symbolizes who he was in high school

and how he misses that fame. He still wants to

feel that attention he received as a star athlete



“It makes no difference to the lug wrench, though” (24)

Flick’s fine handling of the lug wrench not

mattering symbolizes that his skills are not very

relevant to his life anymore.



“...you’ll find Flick Webb…” (6)

Flick’s last name, Webb, is a metaphor to how he

is stuck in this web that is his vision of his former

high school fame and can not escape it. He is

constantly reminiscing of the attention he used to receive.



“Berth’s Garage/ Is on the corner facing west” (4-5)

Flick’s work place facing the west alludes to how

the unknown territory in the west used to be seen

as a new place of hopes and dreams.



“His hands were like wild birds” (18)

This is a simile; Flick’s hands are being compared

to wild birds,



“Their rubber elbows hanging loose and low...one

is squat, without/ A head at all--more of a football

type” (9, 11-12)

The gas pumps are personified to be basketball

plays whose default stance is to have their

elbows hanging loose and low. One gas pump is

unlike the others whose shape is personified to

be a football player.



“The ball loved Flick” (16)

The ball being able to love is a personification.

- the persona in the poem communicates a sense of disappointment
- the disappointment stems from the idea that flick could have been something great, however never meets his full potential

Transitions between stanza 2 and stanza 3 is a negative change from being a popular high school basketball player who was good at the game and held potential to be great, but underachievers what he could have been and ends up selling gas and never being as good as he could have been

The persona describes Flick's life in the beginning as positive and full of potential and then transitions to describing it as average and boring

Flick starts out popular and well liked, but he forms into an average and normal person. His positive and optimistic attitude turns into an underachieving and not caring attitude.

- Flick more pathetic than before
- ex basketball player > ex dreamer
- unable to complete dreams
- can't achieve his dreams of success
- dead end job, not much pay, unable to achieve his American Dream
- stuck in high school
- will not a amount to anything greater than what he used to be

- while some people are able to develop and grow from their success, other remain stuck in the moment
- their dreams move farther and farther away from them
- idea no matter how much work someone puts in, dreams are not always achievable
- everyone has potential for success, but not everyone has the patience to work for it, or the ability to fully develop it
- flick Webb is stuck in who he used to be, and can't move on from his high school success