First Shot by John Edgar Wideman

In John Edgar Wideman’s ”First Shot”, Wideman vividly paints a picture to the reader of his first time shooting a basketball while sneaking out of the house he was in through a window. Wideman’s work is given to the reader in the format of a memoir with a vast amount of imagery, although Wideman is unsure about a couple of details that happened.

“First Shot” can be described as a memoir that is not only about shooting a basketball, but about a young boy testing his limits. Wideman’s description of the window that he snuck out of is a symbol of the barrier between where he was and where he wanted to be. That barrier, in his childhood, were the adults supervising him at the time. This parallels challenges that anybody faces throughout their childhood. Once Wideman overcame that barrier, he reached a place that was so emotional to him that he could vividly describe the actual picture leading up to the circumstance.

“First Shot” demonstrates the capability and restrictions of memory. Wideman had such a great experience that he was able to vividly describe the exact scene that he was in years later. Yet, Wideman was unable to describe the actual logistics of what happened (i.e. the basketball going in or out of the rim). This can be analyzed in a variety of ways. Specifically, memories deceive us a considerable amount of the time because the details of what happened are so vague that they can be slightly altered. Further evidence of this statement is apparent when Wideman states that “I become who I am today, the story truer and less true as I invent it, as it invents me[…]”. The author tells us how the story is dynamic, in which it changes over time. Wideman is surely saying something about the capability of memory and our capability to change it.

The last picture on page 312 is a scene where three people are in street clothes playing basketball with a basket for a basketball rim and a variety of items like old tires, a bike, and a baby stroller surrounding the players. Outside of the story by Wideman, photographers intentionally frame photographs like this to vividly illustrate hardships or to further a point or argument that is being made. This not only demonstrates the powerful, emotional attachments to a picture (similar to Wideman’s descriptions in his story), but also how the media is able to consciously frame these pictures for their own furtherance.