H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights is a detailed account of a journalistic experience that he endured for one year in the small Texas town of Odessa. Odessa, originally a booming oil town, eventually experienced decline where high employment and a weak economy followed. Odessa was known for being racially split, where black desegregation was not enacted till the mid eighties. The town seemed so lost in its ways of what was right and wrong that racism seemed socially acceptable. What the town did have, however, was the thrill every Friday night of watching the Permian High School Panthers Football Team.
Bissinger’s main focus in the novel was capturing the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers, and their hunt to the State Championships. In his reports and research for the novel he zoned in on five key players of the team, giving detailed accounts and analyzes of relationships, feelings, and the effects the game threw upon the players. Bissinger brings about his thesis clearly throughout the novel, showing how the town of Odessa put the game of football above all else in society, and how racism and the idolatry of the game brought about negative effects in Odessa’s society. Because of Odessa’s circumstances, the citizens of Odessa had really nothing going for them in their lives except for Friday Night games watching the Panthers take the field. The town’s mindset was so focused towards the game of football, that it dangerously became superior to everything in Odessa, such as education, where more money was spent on athletic first aid equipment then on the school’s English department. Children growing up in the community felt pressured by their elders to play for the Permian team, just as they had back in the day.
One of Bissinger’s main focuses was on the character James “Boobie” Miles, the Permian running back, and the team’s main hope of getting to the State Championship. Out of all the players on the team, he had a high chance of becoming a star player and getting a University scholarship. However, due to a knee injury, he was never able to play the same again. Boobie never worked hard in school, and neither he nor anyone else worried about his academic failures because they believed that he would become a star. Bissinger’s focus on Miles exemplified how much higher the school and town viewed football over everything.
Sometimes I believed that Bissinger gave too much information on past events that had occurred in Odessa, which at times didn’t seem relevant to the story. All in, Friday Night Lights was a fantastic sports novel. I loved how Bissinger included excerpts from events he witnessed, because it let you sense what actually happened. At first glance it leads you to believe that football is the novels entirety, but in fact it encompasses the lives of a group of teenagers, showing how racism, poverty, and football leads to excitement, love, evil, and destruction in their society.
“Friday Night Lights” is a novel written by H.G. Bissinger and is about a powerhouse high school football program in 1988. This true story takes place in small town America, Odessa, Texas to be exact. The story starts with a brief preface which describes how Bissinger left his job as an editor at a Philadelphia newspaper publisher for one year to live in Odessa and follow this high school team. The high school he was following was Permian High. A large school of roughly five-thousand students who all had one thing on their minds, football and everything else came second to it. This was because they were home to one of the top football programs in the country. This team wasn’t only supported by the students; it had the full support of the entire town of Odessa. And every Friday night, underneath the stadium lights, they were on stage for these people. And for this team winning wasn’t everything, it was the only thing.
Throughout the story Bissinger focuses on many different aspects; winning, losing, football, and family. But one of the major matters he focuses on is racism. This is because in Odessa, which is located in the west of Texas, they still thought that racism was somewhat acceptable because they hadn’t caught up to main street America yet. Where racism was unacceptable and could be dealt with criminally. In Odessa if you were black you had a rough life. Almost everything was segregated. Schools, neighbourhoods, store, basically everything was separated between black and white. The only way you could be socially accepted if you were black, is if you played football. And this was almost impossible. This is because to make this football team you had to be the biggest, strongest, fastest, most athletic person they had ever seen. Few black boys made this team, but the ones who did had starting jobs and were usually the best on the team.
The main focus of this story is on the Permian Panthers football team itself. They were one of the best teams not only in the state of Texas, but in the entire US. And Bissinger followed this team wherever they went. He went to all the games, practises, and off field functions. This allowed him to actually see how these boys were living while being icons to an entire town. Sometimes this was tough. But in these boys’ eyes it was totally worth it. The chance at winning a state championship was something they had dream of as little kids and they wanted it more than anything they could possible imagine.
In conclusion I feel that this novel is a must read for all football fans. It is a great story that is full of a ton of information about how football can not only dominate a town, but can dominate it for life. The author of this book is very viable as well, as that it is his story about how he lived with this team through all its hardships and successes. It is a real life interpretation of small town America and the struggles it goes through and how the people living in it may feel like they have nothing to live for. But when those lights came on, on Friday nights these people forgot about everything that separated them and focused on the thing they love, football, and their team, the Permian High School Panthers of Odessa, Texas.
H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights is a detailed account of a journalistic experience that he endured for one year in the small Texas town of Odessa. Odessa, originally a booming oil town, eventually experienced decline where high employment and a weak economy followed. Odessa was known for being racially split, where black desegregation was not enacted till the mid eighties. The town seemed so lost in its ways of what was right and wrong that racism seemed socially acceptable. What the town did have, however, was the thrill every Friday night of watching the Permian High School Panthers Football Team.
ReplyDeleteBissinger’s main focus in the novel was capturing the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers, and their hunt to the State Championships. In his reports and research for the novel he zoned in on five key players of the team, giving detailed accounts and analyzes of relationships, feelings, and the effects the game threw upon the players. Bissinger brings about his thesis clearly throughout the novel, showing how the town of Odessa put the game of football above all else in society, and how racism and the idolatry of the game brought about negative effects in Odessa’s society. Because of Odessa’s circumstances, the citizens of Odessa had really nothing going for them in their lives except for Friday Night games watching the Panthers take the field. The town’s mindset was so focused towards the game of football, that it dangerously became superior to everything in Odessa, such as education, where more money was spent on athletic first aid equipment then on the school’s English department. Children growing up in the community felt pressured by their elders to play for the Permian team, just as they had back in the day.
One of Bissinger’s main focuses was on the character James “Boobie” Miles, the Permian running back, and the team’s main hope of getting to the State Championship. Out of all the players on the team, he had a high chance of becoming a star player and getting a University scholarship. However, due to a knee injury, he was never able to play the same again. Boobie never worked hard in school, and neither he nor anyone else worried about his academic failures because they believed that he would become a star. Bissinger’s focus on Miles exemplified how much higher the school and town viewed football over everything.
Sometimes I believed that Bissinger gave too much information on past events that had occurred in Odessa, which at times didn’t seem relevant to the story. All in, Friday Night Lights was a fantastic sports novel. I loved how Bissinger included excerpts from events he witnessed, because it let you sense what actually happened. At first glance it leads you to believe that football is the novels entirety, but in fact it encompasses the lives of a group of teenagers, showing how racism, poverty, and football leads to excitement, love, evil, and destruction in their society.
“Friday Night Lights” is a novel written by H.G. Bissinger and is about a powerhouse high school football program in 1988. This true story takes place in small town America, Odessa, Texas to be exact. The story starts with a brief preface which describes how Bissinger left his job as an editor at a Philadelphia newspaper publisher for one year to live in Odessa and follow this high school team. The high school he was following was Permian High. A large school of roughly five-thousand students who all had one thing on their minds, football and everything else came second to it. This was because they were home to one of the top football programs in the country. This team wasn’t only supported by the students; it had the full support of the entire town of Odessa. And every Friday night, underneath the stadium lights, they were on stage for these people. And for this team winning wasn’t everything, it was the only thing.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the story Bissinger focuses on many different aspects; winning, losing, football, and family. But one of the major matters he focuses on is racism. This is because in Odessa, which is located in the west of Texas, they still thought that racism was somewhat acceptable because they hadn’t caught up to main street America yet. Where racism was unacceptable and could be dealt with criminally. In Odessa if you were black you had a rough life. Almost everything was segregated. Schools, neighbourhoods, store, basically everything was separated between black and white. The only way you could be socially accepted if you were black, is if you played football. And this was almost impossible. This is because to make this football team you had to be the biggest, strongest, fastest, most athletic person they had ever seen. Few black boys made this team, but the ones who did had starting jobs and were usually the best on the team.
The main focus of this story is on the Permian Panthers football team itself. They were one of the best teams not only in the state of Texas, but in the entire US. And Bissinger followed this team wherever they went. He went to all the games, practises, and off field functions. This allowed him to actually see how these boys were living while being icons to an entire town. Sometimes this was tough. But in these boys’ eyes it was totally worth it. The chance at winning a state championship was something they had dream of as little kids and they wanted it more than anything they could possible imagine.
In conclusion I feel that this novel is a must read for all football fans. It is a great story that is full of a ton of information about how football can not only dominate a town, but can dominate it for life. The author of this book is very viable as well, as that it is his story about how he lived with this team through all its hardships and successes. It is a real life interpretation of small town America and the struggles it goes through and how the people living in it may feel like they have nothing to live for. But when those lights came on, on Friday nights these people forgot about everything that separated them and focused on the thing they love, football, and their team, the Permian High School Panthers of Odessa, Texas.