The Brooklyn Nine

“‘I am the fastest boy in Manhattan,’ Felix whispered. ‘I am the fastest boy in all of New York.’ He struck a match and readied himself like he was a runner on first base. ‘I am the fastest boy in America.’”

While these words show Felix’s pride, they also show the basis for his Bravery in the Face of Fear. His courageous character is illustrated as he assists firefighters attempt to quell fires raging in New York.

“I think maybe baseball is America. The spirit of it, at least. Something we brought with us from the Old World and made our own, the way we made this country.”

Through the firefighter’s opinion, a central thread tying the generations of the Schneider family is woven. The family consistently relates to each other through their baseball memorabilia, paralleling their sense of familial identity with baseball’s identity of becoming an American sport.

“Louis had been there for Stuart’s rookie engagement in the Civil War—what the career men called ‘Seeing the Elephant’—and had seen Stuart come away the worse for it. After their first battle, most men went one way or the other: They either got crazy, or they got scared. Stuart got scared.”

These words demonstrate the psychological effects of war and emphasize the importance of Bravery in the Face of Fear. Stuart’s fear contrasts Louis’s bravery in and out of battle, and Louis continues in life, while Stuart dies in battle.

“In time Louis had begun to think of the ball as himself, or the ball as a part of him maybe—he hadn’t really tried to make sense of it.”

These words illustrate the beginnings of the Schneider family aligning their identity with the baseball memorabilia they inherit. Louis’s reflections outline the family heirlooms as symbols of the family themselves, passing their wisdom and knowledge down generation to generation.

“‘Too bad we couldn’t have settled this whole thing over a game of baseball,’ Louis told him, ‘trading fly balls instead of lead ones.’”

Louis contrasts baseball with war and aligns the identity to both with the American experience. As Louis wishes conflict could be solved through baseball, he underscores the sport and war both as American past times, introducing irony to the narrative.

“‘Mike “King” Kelly, famed baseballer.’ Why had they buried him so far down the list of performers? Wouldn’t he be the star attraction?”

In Arnold’s struggle with The Difficulties of Determining Trustworthiness, he is blinded by his admiration of Kelly to see the former baseball player for his true character. Arnold’s impression of Kelly’s name on the theater list foreshadows his own interaction, as Kelly becomes lower down on Arnold’s list as well.

“‘You know,’ Kelly told Arnold, ignoring his manservant, ‘I was once given a silver bat by the Cincinnati Enquirer when I played in the Queen City, in honor of hitting the first home run at the Avenue Grounds.’”

Kelly’s attempt to continue his legacy illustrates his habit of deception and supports the novel’s theme of Determining Trustworthiness. Kelly manipulates Arnold by telling him a little truth mixed with a lie in that he won a silver bat, but lies about it being displayed.

“Mike Kelly is all washed up.”

Arnold’s discovery regarding Kelly’s trustworthiness is complete, as Kelly’s struggles with alcohol addiction lead him to break his commitment to Arnold, as well as pawn Arnold’s beloved bat. Arnold’s betrayal and disillusionment are evident as he bitterly declares Kelly’s status as a baseball player.

“This isn’t baseball, thought Walter. It’s a minstrel show.”

Walter’s reflections as he watches the Black baseball team illustrates his own biases and continues the theme of Racial Discrimination and Its Systemic Effects. Walter experiences discrimination from others regarding his family’s name, but before he does, his own prejudices demonstrate his ignorance regarding the systemic racism in the US.

“He and his family weren’t anything. They didn’t go to temple and they didn’t go to church. They weren’t Jewish-American, or German-American, or any kind of -American. They were just American.”

Walter’s grasping thoughts as he attempts to understand why his family is being discriminated against outlines the basis of the prejudices enacted against them. While Walter views himself as American, others view him as ethnically Jewish based on his family name, furthering the racial discrimination in the novel.

“Walter pulled off his beloved Brooklyn Superbas hat and flung the thing as far out into the water as he could. He watched it splash down, then bob, and then sink, settling in with the rest of the trash at the bottom of the great black sea.”

Walter’s disillusionment is symbolized as he parts with his beloved Superbas hat after learning of the systemic racism within which the team operates. Baseball is compared to the sea in Walter’s reflection, as a sport that once held as many possibilities as the ocean but is now a sport of disappointment like the trash he imagines is sitting on the sea floor.

“Frankie showed him her haul. Fifty-five cents. Numbers rackets were illegal—just like blind pigs and speakeasies—but Pop and most of the other cops looked the other way. Frankie knew most of them went to those places to have a drink when they got off duty anyway, her pop included.”

As the first female perspective from the Schneider family line, Frankie can maneuver the illegal gambling world with ease as an unassuming female, referencing the novel’s theme of The Difficulties of Determining Trustworthiness. While Frankie fixes numbers to her benefit in a dishonest manner, she ultimately provides further opportunities for education for herself.

“Look, do the math. Mickey Fist’s numbers game pays six hundred to one. You bet a penny and win, you make six bucks. You bet a dollar, you win six hundred. Sounds good, right? Only nobody hardly ever wins. You gotta pick the right digits, in the right order. That’s a one in a thousand chance, see? It’s a sucker’s bet.”

Frankie’s intelligence for math is the first element of academic prowess exhibited by the Schneider family. Her quick calculations characterize her as clever, with an affinity for numbers that serves her well as she cheats the system.

“Believe it or not, Frankie, I was actually interviewing someone for once. You know that double Herman hit that turned into a double play? The big lunk actually blames his bat. Says it’s defective. You’ll never guess what he said he’s going to do with it.”

The reporter’s story regarding Herman’s superstition about his bad demonstrates the mythology about the sport and how it affects its players. The passage also foreshadows Snider’s later discover that Babe mailed his bat back to the bat maker and is able to sell the bat for good money to help his family after their house fire.

“Ms. Hunter brought Kat a uniform like the rest of the girls wore, a belted dress with a tunic that buttoned up the side. In the middle of the tunic was the round logo of the Grand Rapids Chicks. Kat looked at herself in the mirror. The skirt had no pleat to it, and Kat felt like she was wearing a parachute. Worse, the hemline came down to her knees. She felt a little corny putting on a skirt to play baseball or softball or whatever it was they were calling the game the girls played. Ever since the war had started, girls everywhere had been wearing pants and dungarees.”

Kat and other women were given the opportunity to play baseball professionally during the war but were still confronted with society’s expectations of women during the time. Though playing on an athletic sports team, they were expected to wear outfits that were impractical for baseball because of their gender.

“Kat took a deep breath and stared out the window. The city streets of Grand Rapids had turned into the rolling farmlands of Michigan. She wanted her father to come home safe, wanted the Allies to beat Hitler, wanted her family to stop scrimping and saving and eating nothing but potatoes and carrots from their victory garden. But out here, in the vast flatlands of the Midwest, she was already starting to forget about all that.”

Kat’s refuge in baseball is illustrated here as she lists her concerns about her life but feels them melt away as she focuses on the next game. Her self-confrontation about her conflicted feelings regarding the war and her guilt about not wanting it to end so she can keep playing demonstrates her own inner sense of Bravery in the Face of Fear.

“Their game that night was canceled. Everything was canceled, and for one glorious night, all of America took the break it hadn’t taken ever since the attack on Pearl Harbor more than three years ago.”

Kat communicates the news that World War II has ended, foreshadowing the changes to come in her life. She understands that her time on the baseball field is limited, and the news that the war is over limits her further, parsing her own celebratory feelings.

“He couldn’t decide which was worse: Eric Kirkpatrick or the Russians.”

Jimmy’s point of view as a child highlights his fear about his school bully and inserts a sense of humor into the narrative. Jimmy compares Eric to the Russians, as his class learns about the Cold War, while Jimmy and Eric enter their own “cold war” of sorts after Jimmy witnesses Eric’s fear of a bombing.

“‘I tell you,’ Great-Grandpa Snider said, ‘you better do something about it now, or you’re going to be ducking and covering your whole life. That’s what my pa did, and it wore him down.’”

Walter advises Jimmy about the impacts of Bravery in the Face of Fear and illustrates how one’s courage can leave an impression on generations after them. Walter’s wisdom empowers Jimmy to confront Eric in his own way, cleverly bypassing Eric’s bravado to secure his own safety.

“Jimmy smiled and told Ralph all about Mutually Assured Destruction as they looked for a place to flip cards.”

Jimmy’s conflict with Eric continues to be framed within the Cold War era that he grows up in, and highlights how he applies the lessons he learns to his own life. The continued metaphor of comparing Jimmy’s war with Eric to the Cold War allows for comedic relief considering serious historical matters.

“‘We’ve lost three straight,’ Coach Clemmons told Michael. ‘I’m counting on you to be our stopper now, all right? And just remember, not every pitch has to be perfect, Mikey. Most batters will get themselves out, and the guys behind you can do the rest, all right? We may not be able to hit a lick, but we can field like nobody’s business. All right?’”

Coach Clemmons’s words add anxiety to Michael’s already tense struggle with perfection, and by emphasizing that the pitch doesn’t have to be perfect, Michael feels more stress that it in fact must be perfect. He is only able to show Bravery in the Face of Fear when he learns to let go of his sense of control and rely on himself.

“It was a day like Michael had never known and knew he would never see again. Like Sandy Koufax and his perfect game, it was a special gift in a special time and a special place, one that he shouldn’t examine too closely, one he could never duplicate. No matter how much he worked, no matter how hard he tried, it was the kind of perfect day that would come only when it wanted to, when the sun smiled and the grass laughed and wind sang hm-batter-hm-batter-hm-batter-swing.”

Michael’s moment of character growth is crystallized in time for him as he begins to understand that he does not have to strive for perfection. His moment of growth is one of the few moments of Schneider family growth that happens on the baseball field itself.

“That’s the way it looked through Snider Flint’s blurry eyes. He woke in a sweat to a piercing alarm, louder and harsher than his bedside alarm clock. The smoke detector. He snapped awake, feeling the full blast of heat on his face, seeing the orange flames licking up under his bedroom door, through his walls. Through his walls? Was that even possible?”

Snider’s experience with his family home’s fire returns the narrative full-circle, back to the beginning as he experiences the same fear as Felix did during the New York fires. Snider’s intake of his surroundings shows his Bravery in the Face of Fear as he takes inventory of his environment during the emergency.