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Chapter 33
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fever Pitch, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Obsession vs. Fandom
Sports, Identity, and Community
Escapism
Sports and Masculinity
Summary
Analysis
Arsenal has a negative public image. The team is unfriendly and doesn’t play strategically. West Ham has the opposite reputation—they are stylish and progressive. Arsenal loses the Cup Final to West Ham. At one point in the game, Arsenal player Willie Young makes a foul against a 17-year-old West Ham player, upsetting the crowd. Nick finds the play entertaining because even though it is mean-spirited, it is classically “Arsenalesque.” Nick thinks Arsenal merely fills a public need for “harmless pantomime deviancy.”
Nick has always enjoyed Arsenal’s grouchy and disagreeable attitude—an attitude shared by the players and the fans. He finds it cathartic. Soon, though, this competitive mindset becomes harmful and violent, though interestingly, Nick himself doesn’t seem to see a problem with it.
Themes
