34
4. Wishy-washy
People should have got self determination to achieve the goal in their life. People have to be well-determined once they have certain purpose. However, Chick
is a person who has no self determination in his life. His goal always changes based on the one who has stronger influence in his life at that time Albom 132. This
characteristic can be seen from his manner. When his father is leaving, Chick’s mother has bigger influence on him. Chick goes to college and he gets good grades
for the subjects. However, when his father suddenly comes back into his life, Chick drops out of college to play minor league baseball.
I dropped out to play minor league baseball, at my father’s suggestion and to my mother’s everlasting disappointment. I had been offered a spot in
the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization, to play winter ball and hopefully make their minor league roster. My father felt this was the right time. “You can’t
get any better playing against college kids,” he said.
When I first mentioned the idea to my mother, she screamed, “Absolutely not” It didn’t matter that baseball would pay me. It didn’t matter
that the scouts thought I had potential – maybe enough to make it to the major leagues. “Absolutely not” were her words.
And I absolutely ignored her. I went to the registrar’s office, told them I was leaving, packed up a duffel
bag, and split Albom 131-132.
From the quotation, it can be seen that Chick does not have his own life determination. He cannot decide his own choice whether he wants to focus on his
study or his baseball career. Once somebody comes and influences his mind, Chick can directly shift his focus. He is an unstable person.
35 That Chick is a wishy-washy person can be seen when Chick finally decides
to go and join the Old Timer Game based on his father’s wish. Whereas, his father has left him after his baseball career fades. Chick also has started his new life by
opening sports bar. Considering the things that his father has done to him, Chick can just refuse his father. Yet, he lets his father influence him again.
There are a lot of things I wished I’d asked him. Instead, I said I’d call him back. I hung up the phone. And I let the opportunity my father had “finagled”
dance around my head… I tried to focus. I tired to wrap my mother’s birthday party around me. But my father, a thief in many ways, had robbed me of my
concentration. Before the paper plates were tossed, I was down in the basement, on the phone, booking the last plane out Albom 160.
If Chick has his own principal, he will not let his father influence him easily. He would have refused his father’s wish and continued his life peacefully. Moreover, his
father never gives him any appreciation and affection to him, even his father has hurt him and family by leaving them. However, in fact, Chick decides to go to fulfill his
father’s wish again. His father has succeeded in controlling Chick’s life again.
B. Chick Benetto’s Intrapersonal Conflicts
Since each person in this world has hisher own thought, feeling and opinion toward something, conflict always exists. Human life and conflict cannot be
separated. Conflicts always exist when there is something undesirable happens. External factors and internal factors can trigger conflicts to arise. Thus, Redman in A
Second Book of Play divides conflict into external conflict and internal conflict. An external conflict or interpersonal conflict is defined as a struggle between the major
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