This essay is about how the theme of believing in dreams, is central to the novel Shoeless Joe and applies to three main characters.

Essay by Enchino211High School, 11th gradeA-, January 2003

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Shoeless Joe

Dreams do come true! The theme of dreaming and never giving up on your dreams is central to Shoeless Joe and is shown in J.D Salinger, Eddie Scissons, and Ray Kinsella. All three of these characters have a dream of some sort. Each one of their dreams somehow relates to baseball. Because they keep their dreams in mind and never give up hope, their dreams come true in this novel. For each of the three previously mentioned characters, their dreams are vastly important and this is how the theme applies to them.

J.D Salinger is the famous writer who appears in the novel Shoeless Joe. In the novel he like many others has a dream. Salinger's dream was to play a baseball game at the Polo Grounds, which was a ballpark in New York City and was torn down in the early 20th century. Unfortunately, because the ballpark was torn down, Salinger never had the opportunity to play there.

Throughout the story, the writer keeps believing that the impossible is possible, in other words that one day he will play at the Polo Grounds. During the story, once Ray Kinsella and J.D Salinger meet, Salinger tells Ray about his dream to play baseball at the historic ballpark. Ray tells Salinger about his magical ballpark and how Joe Jackson's team plays there. At first, Salinger doesn't believe him but when he hears a voice in his head, the same voice that told Ray, "If you build it, he will come," (Kinsella, 3) he begins to believe Ray. Once Salinger actually sees Joe Jackson play on Ray's field, he begins to think that maybe his dream might come true. In one of the last scenes in the novel, Joe Jackson asks Salinger if he wants to come with the...