A Discussion on "White Mule" by William Carlos Williams

The stage is set: Fourth of July, Doubleheader, Giants versus Cardinals, Joe in the stands. Reading "White Mule" offers a look inside Joe's head, with a narrative of events on the field intertwined with his own problems and struggles. His thoughts jump back and forth with no warning or pattern. During the action of the game, Joe is totally consumed by what is going on in the field and around him in the stands. There is a nugget of happiness within the game that makes all his other problems fade away. And then there is a break. An inning change or a meeting on the mound, and then the troubles of the outside world come crashing back in. Joe's life outside the ballpark is nowhere near as grand as the one he imagines that he has within its walls. He wants to do whatever it takes to maintain this blissful feeling outside the game, even contemplating quitting his job. He tries to stay focused on the teams in front of him as they lull him away from his problems, but those troublesome thoughts keep creeping back in.

The fans wanted Mathewson.. Mathewson save the day. Mathewson would make the world right. "Shut up! Shut up! shouted Joe," as he did not share in raising Mathewson on a pedestal as the rest of the fans seemed to. Our class encountered much the same thing at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. The fans in front of us were totally disconnected, until Billy Butler walked up to the plate. As soon as he was announced over the speakers, she and her cohorts screamed his name as if it were the last thing they would ever say. Looking back, we can see that Mathewson was truly a great baseball player and earned the attention he got, but at the time, he was perhaps idolized a little more than he deserved. Who knows what we will see from Butler as time goes by?

These two games on a summer afternoon offered Joe an escape from the real world. He was able to be free from his "real world" responsibilities for a while, but he could not totally leave the thoughts behind. After the games were over, Joe ambled down onto the field and saw up close the very ground where living legends had just walked. He made his way through the grass before he exited the ballpark. While we don't know for sure what he went on to do, we speculate that none of the grand, life changes plans that he thought up at the game came to pass. Instead, Joe probably went on with his life as it had always been. By stepping foot on the field, Joe had inadvertently removed some of the magic from the game, and thus extracted any will he had to put his life-altering plans into action. In our minds, Joe left the ballpark that day and returned to the life he had always known, forgetting about what could be until the next game came around.