• Discuss your ideas about the main character(s). Is the character worthy of praise or criticism? Why?

I think Tim Temples is a great character in this book. It helps show what the life of a teenage boy is like in a small town in Illinois. The main character is just assumed to be automatically going to University of Illinois just because his brother did. Also he was assumed to be playing baseball somewhere in college without even thinking about his options. Tim really does not know what he wants to do or even go to college. He sees that his brother has been ruined by going to college to play baseball. He got into partying and lost a step in baseball. He just really does not know what he wants to do and he receives all this praise of being a Temple. He is not worthy of any of this because he has not really worked hard for any of it and just kind of expects to get it all handed to him and he will get all the answers without trying. I do not think that Tim will amount to anything of a college baseball player. I think all the talk about him moving on after the high school life will die down and he will just settle with staying in Mattoon and working at the plant for the rest of his life with the horsemen. I do not think that Tim has pursued anything in baseball and has not put fourth the effort to be a dominant player. In my eyes he is mediocre but is looked upon as being good because it runs in the blood. Until he works his butt off and proves himself I do not think that he deserves any of the praise he gets just because of the last name he has.