Slam by Nick Horny Essay

Every year, there are so many teen pregnancies, and a lot of those kids have to give up their dream, or their pretentious future for their child. The book I read called Slam by Nick Hornby, is the story of a fifteen year old boy named Sam who meets a girl, Alicia, and they start dating, but Sam ends up getting Alicia pregnant. The book is about how Sam dealt with being a father at such a young age, and during this time, a poster of his idol, Tony Hawk, famous skateboarder, seemingly “whizzed” Sam into his future life on multiple occasions so he could see what it would be like. Later, Sam actually lived those experiences, and though he made different choices then, the outcomes were the same. But, the whole time, Sam never understood the true meaning of why this was happening to him. Through the theme of the struggles of teenage pregnancy, Nick Hornby expresses how people who have endured this must become more responsible and must give up many things.

Through the theme of the hardships of teenage pregnancy, the author shows how Sam struggles with having to become responsible. One example of this is when Sam found out about Alicia’s pregnancy, he fled to Hastings, a place quite a long distance from his home in Southampton, England, and planned on never returning to his home. In fact, he tossed his cellular phone into the ocean so he could be thoroughly disconnected from his old life. This shows how he is not feeling ready to have the responsibility of becoming a father and growing up at such a young age. He does not want to jump in to such an enormous commitment yet, and he feels as though he can run away from it. This also shows how immature he is, thinking that he can do this, and how much more he needs to develop to become a father, and he is scared that he must do that so fast.d Another example is, when Sam had to take Rufus to the doctor to get his shots, Rufus got nervous and cried no matter how many times Sam told him it wouldn’t hurt. After a while, Sam thought, “She [Alicia] can take him. I don’t want to deal with this.” This also shows how Sam doesn’t want to deal with the responsibilities of having a child, even if it is just taking your child for a checkup to the doctor. This also shows how he has not grown enough because it shows how he does not understand the importance of doctors’ appointments, and he does not want to have to deal with a whiny child. Overall, all of these responsibilities make up why having a baby as a teenager is hard for many different reasons.

Through the theme of the hardships of teenage pregnancy, Hornby communicates how the characters in this story who have experienced this have had to

give up a lot of things. One instance is, after Sam and Alicia told Sam’s mother that Alicia was pregnant, Alicia’s parents expressed their worry for Alicia saying, “‘But at the moment we’re more worried about Alicia’s future.’

‘Not Sam’s?’ said my mum. ‘Because he had a future too.’

I looked at her. Had? I had a future? Where was it now?” This expresses how young and full of experiences to come Sam and Alicia used to be, but after they were together, they became like raisins. At first, they were grapes, full of life, but then the sun (Rufus) drained all of their other future, and replaced it with one it created; Being put into little red boxes, and then crammed into the lunch boxes of children around the world. Or, in other words, taking care of a kid. Furthermore, a long time after Alicia has had her baby, and she has to take care of him, she is talking to Sam, and she says, “‘And I know I wasn’t ever going to be, you know, a rocket scientist or a great writer or any of the things my parents think I can do. But I was joint to be something. I don’t mean something incredible. Just something. And what chance do you think I’ve got now? Look at me.’” This shows just how much having a baby took away from Alicia and Sam. Even though she didn’t want anything magnificent, and she didn’t want to be amazing, she wanted something. Something better, at least. All in all, the baby took a lot away from Sam and Alicia, and that was only one of the many struggles they had to endure.

I think that the author, Nick Hornby, did a very good job achieving the goal that I can infer that he strived for when writing this book. I think that his goal was to explain how hard having a child as a teenager can be, and the toll it can have on people. In conclusion, Nick Hornby used the theme of the hardships of teen pregnancy to communicate how those who have been through this certain issue have to become responsible, and have to give up many things such as their time, their adolescence, and their future.