Field of Dreams

Adam McCabe
Dr. Colin Howley
26 August 2011
Review #3
Field Of Dreams
Baseball, the great “American pastime”, occupies an important place in the construction of the American national identity. Baseball, like apple pies and bald eagles, is symbolic worldwide for representing the United States while being both prominent in society and intertwined with the history of our nation. Over the past two hundred years, many phases and issues in American history such as, urbanization, immigration, industrialization, franchising, and labor problems, have also been reflected in baseball. In Field of Dreams the viewers see Ray Kinsella’s journey of building a baseball diamond after hearing commands from a mysterious voice. In actuality, Ray was given the opportunity to not only give the 1919 banned Chicago White Sox players redemption at playing baseball, but he was able to give his personal relationship with his father another chance. through the sport of baseball.
To begin, Field Of Dreams displayed baseball as a form of mass distraction, as Ray Kinsella became distracted from his everyday life as a corn farmer. Ray disregarded his job and did not think through the financial troubles he would be putting his family and farm into for the game he loved. Other people who lived in his town believed he was crazy as he was losing profit by destroying valuable corn acreage to build his baseball diamond. But Ray’s mind was set, and no matter what the people of the town or Amy’s family said, he was building that baseball field. Again this idea of mass distraction is displayed once Ray goes on his cross-country journey, following the commands of “the voice” to Terrance Mann’s house, to Fenway Park, to Chisholm, Minnesota, and back “home” to Iowa. Ray is not able to work during this time and puts his family and his business in a hole because he was not working. Also, the trip itself cost money, which, the family could have used to pay off bills on the farm or to buy more farming... [continues]

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