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Symbols & Motifs
The Most Improved Player Award
The Most Improved Player award is a symbol of Alex’s complicated and negative relationship with baseball. At the beginning of Chapter 3, Alex notes that he has won the award six years in a row and sees this fact as incontrovertible public proof that he will never be good at baseball. He recalls complaining to his dad the year before that “[n]obody else ha[d] ever gotten it five times in a row” and therefore not wanting to win it for a sixth time (23). He believes that the Most Improved Player award is only given to “the ones who reek to begin with” (21). To receive this award year after year, Alex believes, means that “[e]very year [he] start[s] out totally reeking and end[s] up only stinking” (23). Alex’s dismal description of his own baseball performance reflects his insecurities and worsening self-esteem as he persists in judging himself by an unfair standard rather than leaning into his natural talents. To Alex, the Most Improved Player award represents his lack of skill in baseball and his many years trying and failing to overcome this deficit.
Alex’s Baseball Uniform
Alex’s baseball uniform is a point of contention for him, as it is a physical reminder that he is the smallest kid on his Little League team. Because he attempts to evade this fact by making up lies about his true size, the uniform becomes a symbol of Alex’s desire to be bigger and a motif for the novel’s thematic focus on The Consequences of Lying. The image first appears in Chapter 4, when Alex details his years-long struggle with being small and worries about having to announce his small stature in front of his team. He decides, “I just couldn’t shout small again. Not in sixth grade” (30). Alex’s concern is a symptom of his greater self-consciousness about his size, but the absurdity of his solution—to claim that he wears a large-sized uniform—only makes his problems worse. In Alex’s mind, if he could just fit into the large uniform, he would automatically gain the respect and admiration that comes so easily to his taller teammates. This wistful wish is reflected in his dream sequence, in which he envisions suddenly being celebrated for his impressive height and size. Likewise, his chagrin over the reality of his small stature is reflected in his disgust at having to wear the “eensy-weensy, itsy-bitsy, practically-the-size-a-baby-would-wear” uniform (34). Alex sees his small uniform as a symbol of his shortcomings in baseball, and his resulting lie only draws attention to his insecurities.
The Kitty Fritters Contest
The Kitty Fritters Television Contest, which appears only in the first and last chapters of the book, works as a motif for The Value of Talent Beyond Athleticism. In Chapter 1, Alex writes an essay to enter the Kitty Fritters Television Contest, which asks entrants to complete the sentence, “MY CAT EATS KITTY FRITTERS BECAUSE…” (1). Alex’s comedic entry paints an unflattering picture of the Kitty Fritters product, as Alex details that his family only buys it because it is cheap, not because it is of any decent quality. He goes on to say that his aunt believes the food “tastes like rubber” and that she refuses to feed it to her own cat (2). Alex’s joke-filled entry essentially roasts the Kitty Fritters brand, and Alex mails it off with no expectation of winning. His attitude toward the contest reveals that he never expects his humor to earn him anything special. Although Alex is a talented comedian, he is surrounded by people who place more emphasis on athleticism than cleverness, and he therefore suffers from low self-esteem.
In Chapter 12, when Alex is at his lowest point, he is suddenly awarded with a new source of attention and renown when he wins the Kitty Fritters contest. When Alex’s school principal makes the announcement, he lets the entire school know that Alex is star material. With this reversal in his fortune, Alex finally gains the admiration of his peers and goes from believing that he is “a big, fat nothing” to thinking, “I am an original” (122, 126). As the book closes, Alex’s self-esteem is at an all-time high because he has finally been recognized for his talent and now knows that his comedic prowess is just as valuable as athleticism.
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