67 pages • 2 hours read
Emily RathPucking Around
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Hockey Jerseys
In Pucking Around, hockey jerseys not only identify the players of the Jacksonville Rays, but they also serve as a symbol of intimacy and emotional affection between the characters. The action of wearing someone’s jersey is portrayed as an act of flirtation early in the novel, and this dynamic is quickly established when Jake asks Rachel, “What’s it gonna take to get you to wear my jersey to a game?” (144). Ultimately, Rachel doesn’t wear Jake’s jersey, but her choice to wear Ilmari’s jersey to a game proves pivotal in the development of the group’s relationship, as well as in their ongoing struggle with the desire to make their relationship public.
Even without knowing the depth of the relationship between Rachel and Ilmari, Poppy’s comment on Rachel’s game attire reflects the underlying social significance of the choice, for the PR rep comments, “Kinnunen is just gonna die that you’re wearing his jersey tonight” (504). Significantly, Rachel reflects that she is doing so to support Ilmari’s Olympic bid, and that although “Jake is probably going to pout for a month […] it’s not every day you have Olympic scouts come watch you play. Ilmari has worked hard for this” (504). Likewise, Caleb’s own perspective as a former hockey player emphasizes the symbolic importance of wearing a player’s jersey, for he states, “It’s that big a deal. […] If I still had a jersey, I’d want to see you in it, too. […] Seeing you in another man’s jersey? Well, it’s a rare kind of torture” (512). Caleb, who does wear Jake’s jersey, uses Rachel’s attire to tease his partner, and the scene holds multiple resonances in the text. The public display of Caleb and Rachel wearing (and then swapping) jerseys leads to circulating rumors about their romantic attachments, and as a result, Jake and Ilmari bond over their mutual annoyance at Rachel and Caleb’s teasing. Similarly, Caleb furthers his own journey of discovering that he can keep hockey in his life even after his injury has prevented him from playing. Finally, although she is not a hockey player, Rachel is able to feel the symbolic resonance of seeing someone else wear “her” jersey in the novel’s climax, in which Jake and Ilmari take the ice as Jake Price and Ilmari Price, having changed their names to emphasize to the world that the four of them are a family. The revelation brings Rachel to tears as the jerseys tell the world how much they love one another.
Injuries
Hockey injuries prompt symbolic journeys for several characters in Pucking Around, for specific injuries lead to transformative experiences for Caleb and Ilmari. In Ilmari’s case, the act of initially hiding his injury mirrors his tendency to keep others at a distance. However, allowing Rachel the opportunity to treat him opens the possibility of a romantic connection between them. Even before he allows Rachel to help him, this injury and the distance it creates both connect to the unspoken dynamics of Ilmari’s position on the team. For Ilmari, his tendency to self-isolate mirrors the role of the goalie, who is the last line of defense on a hockey team and does not move around the rink in tandem with the other players. This professional isolation makes him feel solely responsible for each goal that slips past him, and thus, Ilmari’s fear that the team will discover his injury leads him to self-isolate even further. Over the course of the novel, however, Ilmari learns to find a more positive, inclusive way of relating to others.
In a different configuration of isolation, Caleb’s past injury profoundly affects his sense of self-worth and leaves him struggling to find a new place in the hockey world. Despite his past struggles with addiction and depression, Caleb also frames the damage to his leg as something that offered him a different perspective on his own life. As he states, “It took losing everything with my knee injury to face the truth I hid from everyone, including myself: I’m queer” (109). The anti-gay bias prevalent in the sports world left Caleb unable to examine his own sexuality in a clear-eyed manner while he was an active player, thus, the “silver lining” of his injury is ultimately enormously significant to his life and relationships. Though he does not suffer an injury himself, Jake also faces anxiety over injuries caused in hockey games. His trauma arises from failing to protect Caleb from the hit that led to his damaged knee, no matter how frequently Rachel and Caleb reassure him that he could not have prevented the incident. Confessing this trauma provides closure for Jake even as it brings his relationship with Caleb to their mutual admission of romantic interest. The novel does not necessarily suggest, however, that Jake’s fear is entirely ameliorated.
Airplane Seats
Airplane seats represent both Ilmari’s superstition as a goalie and his growing affection for Rachel in the novel. He and Rachel first interact when she sits in “his” seat on the private plane that takes the team to and from games. Though seats aren’t assigned, Ilmari cannot abide the thought of sitting anywhere else. Though the team supports Ilmari’s demand that Rachel switch seats, claiming that a goalie’s superstition takes precedence before a game, she doesn’t move quickly enough, and the flight attendant commands Rachel to remain in the seat next to Ilmari’s. At first, he resents this, disliking his attraction to Rachel and fearing that she will discover his hidden groin injury, but after the Rays win the following game in a shutout, he demands that she sit next to him on every flight as a good luck charm. Rachel scoffs at this, but complies, thinking, “Ilmari is still doing his whole ‘sit with me if you want to live’ routine” (210). The hours sitting next to one another bring the pair closer together, however, and Ilmari begins to treat sitting next to Rachel as a symbol of their emotional intimacy. When they are not seated together on a commercial flight, he frets, and once the two come together romantically for the first time, the motif of the airplane seat does not recur because it has given way to much more powerful symbols of their connection.
