Lecture 7.6 - Reprise of Chapters 33 and 34
Lecture Overview
In this lesson, we are going to review Chpaters 33 and 34.
Review
Chapter 33: begins after the tournament is over. Saul and the Moose have won the tournament, despite the bullying of the crowd. They’ve won an astounding victory, one that they’ll always remember, and which sports journalists later write about in the Canadian newspapers. The Moose team gets so much press from its victory in the tournament that a hockey scout named Jack Lanahan shows up at Saul’s practices, claiming that he wants to recruit Saul for professional play in the NHL. The passage is a reminder of how far Saul has come. Instead of allowing prejudice to steal away his confidence, Saul has been able to use the racism of his opponents as a motivating force to become a better player, and he ends up getting recruited for the NHL.
Chapter 34: Saul goes Lanahan tells Saul that he could play at a professional level. He offers to put Saul in touch with a team called the Toronto Marlboros, a “feeder club” for the Maple Leafs. The Marlboros are a “minor league” team from which the Maple Leafs—probably the biggest and most popular team in the country—recruit heavily. But Saul is understandably reluctant to give so many racist people the chance to jeer at him. He tells Lanahan, “We’ve tried higher levels. It sucks,” referring to his negative experience at the most recent tournament. His response to Lanahan suggests he’s become cynical. Lanahan tells Saul he is wasting his time and talent playing at this level. He assures Saul that he’ll fit in with his new teammates—that “they love the game too.”
Notice that Lanahan never tries to refute the idea that some people will jeer at Saul because he’s Indigenous. Instead, Lanahan argues that Saul loves the game too much to turn down an opportunity play for the NHL.