Bleachers

Neely is clear when he reenters Messina that “nothing had changed” (43). The school colors, green and white, are still used everywhere, the rituals of football stay the same, and the people are unmoved in their local political beliefs. Bleachers offers a critique on towns that are too resistant to change, and how the close-minded approach to regional traditions can be so harmful to its people that they are driven out of town. Three people from Neely’s generation must leave Messina to either find themselves or happiness outside of the norms and expectations of Messina: Nat, Cameron, and Ellen (Rake’s eldest daughter).

Nat Sawyer never lived up to the tropes of toxic masculinity displayed by other Spartans. He “couldn’t run and hated to hit” and “[n]one of Rake’s players looked worse in a uniform” (61). His status as a Spartan kept him relatively safe in high school, but he still was an outsider compared to the likes of Neely and Silo. When Neely asks Nat how he came out of the closet in a town like Messina, Nat tells him that he didn’t. He elaborates, saying “I sort of migrated to D.C., where it didn’t take me long to figure out who I am and what I am” (68). Exploring a sexuality outside the heteronormative confines in Messina would be met with prejudice, and it took Nat leaving home to find himself. However, returning home proves to be no simple task. Rake is the first person in whom Nat confides that he’s gay, and Rake, who isn’t originally from Messina, is accepting of Nat. The rest of the town isn’t as forgiving, “People stare and point and whisper and grab their children” (66) so Nat avoids the games. Additionally, business was difficult the first few years because “Most of the yokels thought they’d catch AIDS when they walked in the front door” (64). It is only when the rumor spreads that Rake liked to spend time at Nat’s place that business picked up for him. His return was only slightly easier because of Rake’s support, both publicly and privately.

Cameron is another character who “couldn’t wait to leave this town” (131). Though she initially was part of the popular crowd when she dated Neely, that changed once he dumped her. She began to hate football, leaving Messina to attend college at “Hollins, an all-girls school, so [she] could avoid football” (128), and she sends her eldest daughter to a school that doesn’t have a football team. For Cameron, Messina represented everything that had caused her so much loss: the obsession with football, empowering women based on looks alone, and the ostracization of anyone who didn’t agree with the existing traditions and values of the town. She tells Neely that she only attended the games after they broke up because that was the only thing to do in Messina on a Friday night. She explains how she and her friend would watch from the visitor’s side, where they “ridiculed the band and the cheerleaders and the Pep Squad and everything else, and we did so because we were not a part of it. I couldn’t wait to get to college” (134). She was ultimately thankful to Neely for being pushed out of the circle. When she left Messina, she was free to explore more than what the small town had offered—and neglected to offer—her.

Lastly, Rake’s own children fled Messina as soon as they were old enough. Though the novel doesn’t flesh out these characters as much, Grisham does give some background to Ellen, the eldest of Rake’s daughters. Ellen, and her sisters, left the town after graduating: “Her father’s shadow was too mammoth for his children to survive in such a small place. She was in her mid-forties, a psychiatrist in Boston, and had the air of someone who was out of place” (145). Additionally, Cameron alludes to potential domestic violence in the Rake household. Cameron tells Neely, “Miss Lila is a strong woman, but she was no match for [Rake]. He was a dictator on the field, and he had trouble turning it off when he got home” (132-33). This could be another factor in Ellen’s departure from Messina.