Bleachers
By Jason Carlock
Summary
In the book Bleachers, Neely Crenshaw is the main character. He was a football legend at his old high school. He could have gone pro, but blew out his knee. Coach Rake, the head coach of Neelys old team, was a great coach and led his team to many championships. Neely comes back, along with many other former players to pay respect to there old coach. None of the former players really liked Coach Rake. He never treated his players right, and was a mean coach to all of his former players. But as the story goes on, the old players, and Neely start to realize that there coach was really a good man and knew what he was doing. The players just never realized it at the time and took there coach for granite. In the end of the story the players forgive there coach and end up respecting him.
Symbolism and Characterization
John Grisham describes his characters through Neely Crenshaw, and through Neely he talks about his teammates and all of the good things and bad things and memories they had while they played for coach Rake.
Theme
The most important theme in this book is forgiveness. At first Neely cannot stand Coach Rake and thought he was the most selfish and bad person. But overtime he realizes that coach Rake only tried to help Neely and his friends, and he eventually forgives his coach.