Game Changer

The first fragmented idea that Teddy has after his brain injury is “Light in the darkness.” Although the phrase can refer to the darkness of his coma, it comes to mean much more as the facts about his injury come to light. In what ways does Teddy’s injury reveal what has been either ignored or unknown? How does Teddy bring light to each of the following?

• his family’s dysfunctional dynamic
• his friends who must decide how to respond to the reality of the deliberate injury
• the football team and its coach, who initially want only to cover up the injury and maintain the status quo
• his community that takes so much pride in a winning program

By the end of the story, everyone has learned something. Connect your responses to the idea of illumination or light as a revelation and darkness as a metaphor for willful ignorance.

Teaching Suggestion: To help students with the last part of this prompt, you might review the definition of metaphor with them. Consider pointing out that darkness and light are often assigned negative and positive metaphorical meanings, respectively. You might share the following poem to spark a further discussion of whether the standard ideas about darkness and light always apply.