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Chapter 47
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
In the summer of 1984, Nick starts a job teaching English as a foreign language to young Europeans. He means to stay at the school only a year while he works on his writing, but he ends up staying for four years. He watches the European Cup Final with his students, but the game is delayed after a riot of Liverpool supporters kill 38 people. Nick is deeply ashamed to have to explain the situation to his mostly Italian students—most of the victims of the riot are Italian Juventus supporters.
Nick references this incident earlier, as it is a pinnacle of football hooliganism. Referred to as the Heysel Stadium Disaster, the event sparked reform across Europe to enforce tighter crowd control at games. Nick has been feeling ashamed of the growing violence issues in English football for a while, but the close connection he has to his Italian students makes the issue hit home ever more. He is forced to consider his football obsession through a more critical lens.
Themes
Throughout the season of 1985, riots at English football games seem to become increasingly common. Nick feels so ashamed about the riot at Heysel because he knows that if Arsenal had been playing instead of Liverpool, the outcome may have been the same. The uninvolved football fans act detached and removed when tragedies like these happen, but Nick knows that the entire culture surrounding English football is to blame—himself included.
Arsenal is famous for its lack of sportsmanship, and Nick has indeed contributed to Arsenal’s hostile and belligerent ways. English football has helped Nick through many personal issues in his life, but the guilt he feels now seems to be the price he must pay in return for the devastating it trauma it causes others.
Themes
