The Girl who loved Tom Gordon

       “The Girl who loved Tom Gordon” was a very entertaining book to read and truly kept me wanting to read more and more each night before I went to bed.  “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” is about a little girl who goes on a camping trip with her mom and brother. While walking through the wood the little girl “Trisha” decides she needs to take a bathroom break and steps into the woods to take care of her business without telling her mom or brother. Since Trisha’s mom and brother are arguing they do not realize that she is gone until she is too deep in the woods. Trisha decides she is going to take a short cut through the woods where she will meet up with her family but ends up getting lost in the process. Trisha ends up spending eight days in the woods alone. Trisha then begins to see things, one of them being her favorite baseball player and pitcher for the Red Sox Tom Gordon. Tom Gordon helps Trisha through her struggles along with the help of God. After spending many days in the wood being hunted down by an unknown figure, Trisha is able to escape the woods and be with her family once again.  

            The book had some great examples of free will and determinism. First of all we know that Trisha made a decision to step away from the path with her family and venture out into the woods. Trisha made her own decision to go use the bathroom without letting her family know what she is doing. This part of the story is clearly free will.

            There are also many examples of determinism. Throughout the book Trisha talks about “the path”. “The path” to me represents the life path of Trisha’s. She was also lost in the woods and Trisha does not have any control over nature, however a “higher power” does have control of what happens in nature.  Trisha does not have any control of what happens in nature and for that reason her entire time spent in the woods lost shows examples of determinism. Tom Gordon also helps Trisha; even though he is not actually with here while she is lost he still helps her get through her struggles and any time she uses the help of Tom Gordon determinism is being used.   

            Overall I really enjoyed this book and loved the way that Stephen King uses baseball as a metaphor for the chapters as well as Tom Gordon. I am a big fan of baseball and for some reason just knowing that the chapters were listed as innings and that a baseball players was somewhat in the story made me a little more interested in the novel and made me want to start reading the book as soon as I could. After beginning the book I began to enjoy the reading. Stephen King does a great job of pulling the reader in and making you want to know what is going to happen next.