Analyze the football motif in The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick - Essay Example

The novel, The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick written by Peter Handke is about a former goalkeeper of a football team and his life, after he is ejected from a game for foul play. As discussed above, author Handke has used football as an important motif to reveal intricate aspects of the central character, Josef Bloch as well as the whole story. The author shows how Bloch’s life mirrors the game of football, and also how his life exhibits moments similar to the ones, which will be undergone by a goalkeeper during the match, especially when the ball is about to be shot into the goal post.

The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick was originally written in German and is the first of Handke’s novels to be translated and published in English. As Josef Bloch indulges in foul play and gets sent off from the game, he starts facing various repercussions, which shows how the game of football plays a crucial role in changing his life. These repercussions does not happen due to some external forces, it was carried out by Bloch himself as a form of self-destruction without any valid motive, including the murder of a female cashier.

“The self-destruction of a soccer goalie turned construction worker who wanders aimlessly around a stifling Austrian border town after pursuing and then murdering, almost unthinkingly, a female movie cashier.”1 Apart from how the game of football diverts the life of Bloch in a different and at the same time problematic direction, the motif of football is aptly used to denote the isolated existence of Bloch. That is, throughout the novel, Bloch seems to live in a secluded manner, without maximally living with his family and friends.

This existence of Bloch can be correlated through a goalkeeper, who will be far away from the main action, standing and operating in an isolated manner. In any football game, the role of goalkeeper will be mainly under the bars of the goalpost, without directly involving themselves in the match play. On the same lines, Bloch led an isolated existence away from the actions, only coming into the picture due to his own actions. Even his firing from the job did not evoke any reactions from his colleagues and also he lived in the city where he had no friends.

As he read the newspaper and saw the classified sections featuring advertisements for materialistic things, he further felt his isolated survival. Quite strikingly, he was the first one to come out of the football stadium even before the final whistle goes off, as he did not want to be in the midst of a large crowd. Being a goalkeeper of a better known club, he might have played in front of large crowds and could have even enjoyed performing in front of those huge crowds. In addition, a football fan (even if he/she is not a football player) will be in the stadium till the final whistle is blown and could even extend their stay watching all the post-match celebrations and other activities.

However, in Bloch’s case, he does not felt comfortable with the huge crowds and had no interest and enthusiasm to watch a full game. His eviction from a game and the resultant depression made him prefer isolation, and prevented him from merging with the crowd and enjoying game. Handke portrayed him as a goalie, who is isolated from the frantic activities that were taking place around him. Thus, the motif of football and a how goalkeeper will operate in an isolated manner in a football match can be clearly seen in the actions and the characteristics of Bloch. There are