Whale Talk

At Cutter High, letter jackets are seen by coaches, athletes, and the administration as symbols of the achievements of athletes and the respect due to them because of their efforts. The letter jackets also assume other meanings than intended by the Cutter’s athletic establishment, however.

For T.J. and those who are not athletes, letter jackets serve as a reminder of the sense of entitlement athletes have because of the overemphasis on athletics in the community of Cutter. T.J.’s formation of the Mermen, composed of misfits and people who do not represent the typical physical norm for athletes, is an attempt to point out the absurdity of athletes’ sense of entitlement.

When T.J. successfully helps the other members of his team meet the requirements for letter jackets, he recognizes that the accomplishment is “a hell of a gesture, because it lets us stand up for ourselves in the language that is understood at this school” (228). Letter jackets force the entire school to recognize the value of people who are treated as not being valuable because they are different or broken in some way. 

Finally, Chris Coughlin wears Brian Coughlin’s jacket as a means of maintaining a sense of connection with his brother, who is dead by the time the events of the novel unfold.

The enmity between T.J. and Rich has its origin in T.J.’s failed attempt to save a baby deer from being killed by Rich. Although T.J. throws himself between the baby deer and Rich’s gun, Rich still shoots, narrowly missing T.J. and killing the deer.

In many states, there are hunting laws that make it illegal to kill animals that are very young. In killing the baby deer, Rich is engaging in violence that violates the law and that recklessly puts T.J. in danger. His willingness to circumvent the law, regardless of the risk it poses to others, foreshadows his attack on Heidi at the end of the novel and the death of John Paul, an innocent bystander who intervenes to save the defenseless Heidi.

T.J.’s witnessing of the death of the baby deer is also a touchstone experience for him. When T.J. begins to realize that the tension between Rich and him is escalating, his memory of the way Rich looked at him during the killing of the deer is a reminder that Rich has no problem hurting people he perceives as weak (106). When T.J holds a dying John Paul in his arms, he is reminded of the experience of “the deer slipping away” (289). In this instance, the deer’s death is a reminder of mortality. T.J.’s experience of attempting to and failing to rescue the baby deer when he is fourteen shapes his understanding of violence, death, and his responsibilities as a bystander to violence.

At his first practice, Andy Mott shocks the team when he takes off his leg, revealing a “prosthesis from just above the knee” (115-116). The leg is a “space-age metallic thing” (116) purchased with money from a trust fund that Andy’s mother forced Rance Haskins—the person whose negligence is responsible for the injury leading to Andy’s amputation—to establish, in exchange for covering over his acts (226). At the team’s first swim meet, the officials get into a debate because they can find no rules that address whether an athlete with one leg can fulfill the requirements for the breaststroke. At the letter awards ceremony, Andy takes off his leg and waves it in the air, revealing to the entire school that he is a swimmer with one leg.As an object, the prosthesis is a marker of the violence and abuse that took Andy’s natural leg from him. It also represents the physical and psychological difference from others that Andy developed in the aftermath of the abuse. Andy’s big reveal of the leg to the student body serves as reminder of the degree to which people underestimate people with atypical or injured bodies, while the inability of the swim meet officials to interpret the rules with regards to Andy shows how institutions fail to accommodate such bodies. Andy’s defiance of these expectations is a reminder that judging people based on their bodies does a disservice to all involved.