46 pages • 1 hour read
Neal ShustermanGame Changer
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Choice
Throughout the novel, Ash refers to how the choices people make lead them to experience things differently and assume different responsibilities. At the beginning, he emphasizes a perception of choice as divergent paths: “There are choices we make, choices that are made for us, and things we ignore long enough until all choices have fallen away” (4). Ash is initially unsure what choices led him to shift into another universe. Although he thinks he chose to play football that morning, he realizes that his free will is influenced by social and parental pressure too, such as his father’s thwarted ambition to become a professional football player. Reflecting on the role of legacy in one’s life choices, Ash comments, “Sometimes it’s like that when you’re a kid. You eat up whatever your parents put on your life’s plate” (6). Katie is another character whose choices are limited, as Ash perceives them, as Katie seems to have chosen cheerleading because it was expected of her. Katie is also dating Layton because she feels obligated to fulfill a particular role:
You know how some people see a stereotype, and just become it? The path is there, it’s wide, and it’s well trod. It’s easier to follow that path than to defy it. Some people follow that path all the way into the box that’s waiting for them at the end, where the sermon is rote and the flowers are plastic. And so it is and ever shall be, the quarterback and the cheerleader, in every school, in every town, now and forever, amen (11).
Over the course of the story, however, Ash becomes more aware of the power of choosing actively rather than passively allowing events to unfold. He also gains awareness of the many choices available to him, many of which could allow him to effect change. He chooses to join the desegregation club, for example, because “if the choice was either that or do nothing” (104), he would rather try and do something. Ash’s struggle with taking action culminates with the choice he has to make between returning the universe to its original state or picking a perfect, peaceful one. In the end, Ash owns his responsibilities in his original world, realizing that not making a choice is itself a choice—that is, doing nothing to push for social justice is the same as choosing the status quo.
Red Versus Blue
Colors are the first thing that makes Ash realize he is in a different universe. He narrowly misses a collision while driving home because stop signs are now blue. When he notices, Ash reflects, “Red is the color of blood. The color of danger. Which means, if there’s such a thing as intuition, I should have been seeing red everywhere” (22). The detail of the color of stop signs thereby takes on an eerie, ominous quality that heightens suspense. Indeed, the near collision that detail leads to foreshadows the idea that tiny changes can have greater, unexpected implications. This idea is developed further when Ash shifts into a world where the Supreme Court made the decision to uphold segregation in the United States rather than abolish it during the 1950 Brown v. Board of Education case because, according to the Edwards, a Soviet atomic bomb test failed rather than succeeded.
Significantly, the final chapters loop back to the red-blue opposition. After being attacked by Layton, for example, Paul’s blood runs blue instead of red, signaling the upcoming destruction of the world as the universe is starting to fall apart. Blood is symbolically tied to life, and the corruption of such a fundamental aspect of reality ties back to the initial ominousness of the blue stop signs. Subsequently, Chapter 29 is titled “Red” and explores the connection between human life and red blood cells. This chapter marks a return to normalcy as Ash shifts back to his original universe, prompting him to reflect on the limitations of his own perspective: “I guess my own spark of enlightenment is an acceptance of all the things I’ll never know. And I breathe easy because of it. It leaves me content to be a blood cell, bright red with life, carrying oxygen to the brain” (373).
Football
Ash, the protagonist of Game Changer, plays on his high school football team, which is originally called the Tibbetsville Tsunamis, then the Blue Demons and, later, the Gray Demons in different universes. He describes himself as “sturdy” and “solid,” stating: “It’s part of what makes me a fantastic defensive tackle” (3). On top of being the literal catalyst to Ash’s ability to shift between universes, his position on the team foreshadows his strengths and weaknesses throughout the novel. Teddy, one of the Edwards, even suggests that being a linebacker is what helps Ash stay in control during the shifts. In this suggestion, Teddy ties those skills back to the concept of making active choices:
It’s all about balance and knowing your center of gravity. Your sport has trained your mind and body to be aware of such things—and that awareness is something you take with you into Elsewhere. You don’t stumble when you’re in there. That allows you to take decisive action (272).
Additionally, football symbolizes relationships with some of the people in Ash’s life. In some universes, for instance, his father’s thwarted football career leads the man to live a simple, relatively happy life, whereas in the universes where he is an NFL player, he is rich but greedy and manipulative. This variation leads Ash to question which of his choices are his and which he made because of his father’s ambition.
At the beginning of the book, Ash reflects on the nature of his position as a footballer: “Tackles and linebackers—we do the dirty work and get no glory—but we’re always, always the reason for victories and losses” (3). This reflection foreshadows his evolution through the story and the novel’s conclusion. Indeed, Ash goes from being a “blunt object” (358) to honing his critical skills and making more purposeful decisions in order to effect meaningful change and, ultimately, save the universe.
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By Neal Shusterman
