Character Sketch of Sam
In the story “Sam the Athlete” by Stuart Mclean is a story of a boy who was trying to find a sport he could enjoy playing and fit in. Some people might be able to relate to this story from either their child hood or about something they wanted but could not get to it. I found the story funny,
Sam who is protagonist of the story is dedicated, considerate, ambitious, and clumsy twelve years old boy. In the beginning of the story, he wanted to fit in with every body so he asked his mom to buy him a new shoes. So the next afternoon they went to the shoe store and Sam chose the same shoes that every kids his age wear. After trying them on and went for a test run and loved it, then he made sure that its in him mom’s price range. This demonstrates that he is considerate.
When he arrived in the new school and the world of sports was introduced to him in P.E.. This is when he started to want to be an athlete more than anything in the world. He kept trying so hard to do better, he kept failing miserably. This shows that Sam isn’t built to be an athlete, dedicated and ambitious. When playing soccer he does not know how to play and looses track on direction where to kick the ball to and he ended up running straight to some one who was running the right direction. In the parent and teacher meeting Mr. Hayes said “He seems to be an angry boy” (p.64) to Sam’s mom.
On the second week of the school he saw a poster of field hockey, he likes ice hockey but cant stop very well. He tried out and towards the end of the tryout he discovered that he was the only boy in the team and the coach called out to him “Nice work, Samantha” (p.68) which are the words that he wanted to hear for a long time. He finally found a sport that fits him perfectly, so for three weeks he lived a lie with shaved legs. On night he was in his room all alone and wore his skirt and practice some game moves, then suddenly his dad walked in and saw him. His dad Dave and Sam began to talk had some awkward situations and Dave began to think that Sam is gay. So Sam was misunderstood by his father, coach, and teacher.
In the story’s conclusion, their team had a game and their ahead by 1. towards the end he made his first save and won the game, his team mates cheered and congratulate him. When he looked over to the sidelines and saw Mark Portnoy who bullied him over in elementary looking at him with envy. He came to realize that maybe he didn’t have to change to suit to the game, and that it could change to suit him.