37 pages • 1 hour read
W.P. KinsellaShoeless Joe
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1982A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapter 5: “The Rapture of J.D. Salinger”Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
One night, Shoeless Joe invites Salinger to join the players after the game. Ray, who overhears the conversation, is envious of the fact that Joe has invited Salinger, instead of him: “I built this damn field,’ I shout. ‘I carved it out of my cornfield. It’s been like creating a giant work of art, like birthing a child. It’s mine’” (215). He expresses his displeasure to Salinger, who tells him that there was a reason why he was invited instead of Ray, confessing to Ray that he had actually given the interview about baseball he originally said he hadn’t.
Salinger reminds him of his blissful life with Annie and Karin, and makes him realize that he has been chosen because he is unattached and his family is grown. Ray realizes that as a result of Joe’s invitation, Salinger may well get his deepest wish: to play baseball at the Polo Grounds, the home ballpark of the New York Giants that was torn down in 1964. As Jerry accompanies the players after the game, Ray tells Joe to take care of Salinger. When Salinger, accompanied by the players, finally leaves the field, Ray goes back into the house with his wife and daughter. He switches off the lights of the baseball field and, “like a candle going out, the scar of lights disappear” (220). As they walk back, the baseball field is illuminated by the moonlight.
Chapter 5 Analysis
In the final chapter of Shoeless Joe,thereader finally learns about Salinger's purpose in the novel. After a game, Joe invites Salinger to come through the door in rightfield, which signifies the barrier between reality and a world of mystery and magic that lies beyond.
Although Ray is initially violently offended that the players pick Salinger rather than him,when he learns that Salinger really gave the interview about the Giants, Ray, as well as the readers, understand Salinger’s passion for the game. The reader understands Salinger’s pain at the loss of his favorite Polo grounds in the year 1964. His promise to write about his experience assumes greater significance, as he has not published (and perhaps not written) anything for a long time.
The common thread of love for baseball that has been running for the five chapters finally comes to an end in the last chapter. At the zenith of the novel, the novelist shows how the love for baseball can only be experienced subjectively. The different characters in the novel are associated with the game of baseball in different ways. Ray Kinsella’s life has been permeated with the love of baseball ever since he was born. For him, baseball is one of the loves of his life. For “Shoeless Joe” and “Moonlight Graham”, the love for baseball transcends the limit of time and death. Their love for the game allows them to return to Ray’s cornfield and play once again. For Eddie, the game is a world of fantasy, a dream and a religion that he has built and believes in till the end of his life. Salinger, the reclusive writer with a developed imagination, is able to see everything on Ray’s baseball field. Baseball ignites in Salinger the power of imagination and redeems him as an author.
At the close of the novel, Ray leaves the world ofthe field for his house and its implicit domesticity, but as he looks at his creation, the two worlds merge: "The lights dim, making cooling sounds like icicles breaking. The rest of the mirage retreats slowly, like a boat sailing into a fog bank. The voices of the ballplayers merge with the silky rustling of the cornstalks.” (219). He appreciates and loves hiscreation but yearns for the love and comfort provided by his family even more.
