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Chapter 7
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
Nick befriends another Arsenal fan at school—a boy nicknamed Rat. Nick and Rat go to a game together, but Nick’s father can’t take them—he now lives in France—and the boys can’t afford the good seats that Nick’s father bought, so they watch the games from the “Schoolboys’ Enclosure.” The other boys there are from lower-income backgrounds, and Nick and Rat stand out as upper-class by the way they’re dressed.
This is the first time Nick watches a game from the Schoolboys’ Enclosure. This section of Highbury Stadium, meant for unaccompanied children, is a major symbol of the role football plays in Nick’s maturation. Now that Nick’s father is in France, Nick is left with no close male role models. Football begins to take on this role in his life.
Themes
As they leave the game, two of the other boys—Nick notes that they are intimidating because they are Black and very tall—chase them and assault Nick, beating him up and stealing his scarf. In the present, adult Nick admits that his ingrained conception of masculinity, which prevents him from being able to admit weakness, may have skewed his recollection of the experience. In his memory, Nick is the victim. He doesn’t tell his mother the truth about what happened to the scarf, and as punishment his mother deprives Nick of his regular dinner from the chip shop.
Partially due to his father’s absence, Nick grows up with a skewed view of masculinity. Football teaches Nick that men should be physically strong, aggressive, and violent. Recognizing this allows present-day Nick to admit that his memory of getting beat up might be warped.
Themes
