The book Because I am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas is about Anke and her family experiencing the push and pull of their abusive life with her father. Anke finds refuge in playing volleyball, a distraction from her very difficult life. Anke finds her voice in volleyball, and soon she finds her voice and her courage at home. Symbolism is a very big part of this book, and almost every little thing has a big affect. Volleyball is not only a distraction and a refuge from Anke's turbulent life, but a symbol of her growing confidence.
One example of the confidence that Anke is developing through volleyball is during practice, when the coach is telling them to claim the ball. "When he turns to me, the heat I'm just discovering screams, 'MY BALL!' Hair on my arms stands up and about to burst into flame. My lungs are claiming expanding territory. This is my voice. It is MY BALL." This line is so powerful and beautiful because it shows how Anke's sensations are burning up in this glorious sensation of discovering her voice. She realizes she can be strong and powerful. That it is her life she has to reclaim with her voice. It is her life, and it is her ball.
Although Anke's confidence is growing and she is becoming happier, her father wants her to quit. Anke expresses her concerns that her father has noticed the change in her behavior. I think that her father does not want her to play volleyball because he is slightly scared of her newfound confidence. He doesn't want her to speak up; to voice her opinion and maybe have some power over this ausive situation. I think this shows how weak Anke's father really is in comparison to Anke speaking up for herself. This shows me that Anke's father really isn't as big and strong as Anke thinks him to be, and Anke's father is scared of her realizing that.
In conclusion, I think that the symbol of volleyball is a very big symbol in this story; it affects the lives of not only Anke and her father, but her entire family. When Anke has her big outburst at the end of the book, that was a shear result of the confidence gained from volleyball. I think that the symbol that volleyball is not only shows that Anke has always had the confidence in her that she needed to break out of this really horrible situation, but that the abuse she was experiencing daily in her life was only a result of fear. This connects to the poem Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Maya Angelou; in the poem, Maya is saying how she won't give the power of being the source of fear to anything in life, because she knows that fear is what makes this fearful. This connects to Anke because she finally stopped fearing her father, and he was then no longer anything scary. She found the courage and confidence to stop being afraid. Volleyball is much more than a sport in the book Because I am Furniture, it is a symbol of confidence and fearlessness.
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