“Spikes” by Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon’s “Spikes” offers readers a perspective into how a person can unexpectedly learn to cope with the grief of losing a child
Caption: Wikipedia

Credit: Wikipedia

The process of grieving is a healing pain that can revitalize the spirit, just as much as it can signal the end of something or someone that we are beholden by. This is the main lesson for the short story “Spikes”, which first appeared in Michael Chabon’s 1999 bestselling book, Werewolves in our Youth.

The story follows Kohn, a man who is both depressed and alone in the midst of a nasty divorce, which partly seems to have been either made worse or caused by the death of their first child. As we are introduced to Kohn, it is quickly apparent that his shaky relationships with his soon-to-be ex-wife, his divorce lawyer, his therapist and even his own family all serve to cement the isolation that he feels as he struggles to keep up with the curve-balls life has thrown at him. The narrator solidifies this feeling of helplessness, noting that, “They got therapy, but it was a waste of money and time because Kohn didn’t like to talk in front of the therapist. He grieved at odd moments, privately, minutely, invisibly almost even to himself. He did not, it was certainly true, grieve enough. He withdrew.”(pg. 127). In this way, most of the introductory narration is written perfectly to capture Kohn’s feelings of helplessness and introversion, solidifying his status as the odd-man-out and reflecting the fourth stage of grief: depression.

The grieving process of is a healing pain that can revitalize the spirit, just as much as it can signal the end of something or someone that we are beholden by.

However, as we mentioned earlier, this is a remarkable story about learning to grow from loss. It would be a grave mistake to misjudge the main point of this story, just as Kohn’s wife Amy mistook her husband’s introversion; she misunderstood it to be shyness, and later for a lack of grief or remorse for the loss of their child.

As soon as Kohn internalizes his own lack of grief in the opening narration, the story opens up and we are introduced to Bengt, the small child that lives next door to Kohn. Kohn’s dialogue with Bengt — the neighbor boy who must play on the baseball team, despite his own hatred for the sport — introduces a new layer of conflict to the story, as Bengt reveals his own troubles of dealing with the absence of his father, who had drowned at sea, and of being one of the weakest players on his baseball team. Just like that, Kohn — a father without a son, who lost his own child that was with him “for the length of a baseball season” (pg. 127), is able to connect with Bengt, the child without a father.

Caption: Wikipedia

Credit: Wikipedia

The synchronicity of Kohn’s meeting with Bengt opens up a whole new world of possibilities for the grieving pair. Ironically, while the two connect with each other through their hatred of baseball and in need to fill the respective voids that each has lost, it is the act of working together to train for a baseball game that brings them together and ultimately helps Kohn let go of his petty fights with his lawyer and his wife. In this way, the “mindless” activity of practicing on the field is almost parallel to the same level of catharsis that can come from shoveling dirt onto the grave at a Jewish funeral ceremony.

While this story is unconventional as a story of grief, at the end of the day, it provides us with a beautiful image of how the most unexpected people can help us through a difficult time, teaching us to make the most of what we have and to be comfortable with ourselves.

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6 Responses to “Spikes” by Michael Chabon

  1. avatar SCOTT KRUH says:

    While this story is unconventional as a story of grief..

    How so? What is a conventional story of grief and why would any one want to read it?

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    • avatar Kruh Student says:

      Mr. Kruh is the best English teacher ever!

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    • I think many people have more conventional (per say) experiences with grief and yes when they are going through grief – they want to read about it to better understand it. This just happens to be an unusual story of what happened to a man and his neighbor who by chance connected while in the midst of grieving. Hence the story of an unusual path taken. I believe all stories of grief are of value.

      Thanks for your thoughts!

      Suzette, Founder

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      • avatar Scott Kruh says:

        I teach this story. It is a wonderful relationship between the two. Bengt’s jacket is a symbol of how he is covered up and hiding at the beginning of the story, almost to the point where he can barely see and noone can see him. As the day progresses he starts to unzip and loosen the jacket, exposing himself to the world. The final scene, with Bengt using the pennies to buy the spikes, is very sweet, and also lets the reader know this was not a one-time thing. Knowing the status of the boy’s mother, one can imagine the two becoming friendly. I partner this story with another story that includes baseball, “Uncle Rock” by Dagoberto Gilb. The similarity (besided America’s pastime) is the relationship between men and childre with whom they are not related.

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  2. avatar Kruh Student says:

    Mr. Kruh is the best English teacher ever!

    Report this comment

  3. avatar kruh student says:

    This teacher is the worst

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