Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz Analysis Essay Example

“Without virtue, and integrity, the finest talents and the most brilliant accomplishments can never gain the respect, and conciliate the esteem, of the truly valuable part of mankind.” -George Washington.

The novel, Samurai Shortstop, written by Alan Gratz, the novel explores the themes of conflict, cultural differentials, social change and ritual suicide. Toyo is always having to demonstrate integrity in the way he deals with conflict with a respectful and honest standard yet it relates to his moral values. While set in the Edo period. Throughout Samurai Shortstop the virtue of integrity is significant and plays an important role in the conflict and plot of this novel. The novel explores and analyzes three different conflicts that one character, Toyo faces and how through the use of integrity he can overcome them.

One of the great conflicts that take place throughout Samurai Shortstop is regarding Toyo, a junior at Ichiko and Junzo, a senior at Ichiko. He believes that he is the head of the school as the students were informed on the first day that they will “govern” the school themselves. At the forefront of the novel, Junzo and the other seniors are constantly calling Toyo a girl and whenever he tries to prove he is not, the seniors continuously call him a girl. For example, Toyo wanted to try out for the baseball team however, Junzo is the captain of the team and Junzo will never allow Toyo onto the team until later in the novel as he resents him. Junzo later says, “Girls are not allowed on the field.” and I saw a couple of of you ladies in the bathroom earlier.”  Toyo shows integrity by not complaining about failing to make the team but shows Junzo that he is a man by surviving the “storm”. Junzo is the leader of the storm and he attacks Toyos dormitory but Toyo stands tall and survived the beating which means he is now demonstrating the characteristics of a man. Later Toyo turns out to be a great teammate and teaches the team bushido which taught them how to hit and different strategies so they could become a better team.

Another immense obstacle Toyo had to overcome with integrity was Sotaros's hatred towards baseball. Toyo cherished baseball with all his heart, however, Sotaro was very much against baseball and he described it as, “a game where you are trying to steal a base from an opponent.” Sotaro also said, “I can't believe Kinoshita allows such a waste of time,” clearly stating that Sotaro has much hatred for baseball. Toyo was very upset that Sotaro didn't want him to pursue his love for baseball. Instead, Toyo figured that learning bushido would make Sotaro believe that hitting a baseball was just like swinging a bokkoto. In the end, this strategy worked very successfully and is one way to solve a conflict with integrity by demonstrating to Sotaro that baseball and bushido were similar without just informing Sotaro it is so. An example of this is when Toyo realizes that the motion of swinging a bokkoto is the same as hitting a baseball and he quickly teaches his team bushido and tells Sotaro. Sotaro then finally realizes that baseball is Japanese at its best. Toyo's great idea is a great example of a person exemplifying integrity when it comes to a situation where you have to convince someone of something that they truly don't believe in. 

The Third and last obstacle that Toyo had to overcome with integrity is the foreigner Gaijin who climbs over the wall of Soul. When rivals Ichiko and Mejij were battling each other during the game of baseball, a Gaijin the outlander, who was coaching the Meiji team climbed over the sacred Wall of Soul and the fans for Ichiko was disrespected and a brawl broke out between the two teams and their fans. The Ichiko fans said, “That gaijin climbed over the Wall of Soul, Kill him.” Later, Kinoshita tells the boys that they have to meet with the consulate to discuss the situation that happened and if there are any punishments for the boys. The foreigner that climbed over the Wall of Soul had no idea that it was very sacred and valued. He explained that it was an accident. Toyo saw an opportunity to play in a game against the Americans so he took it. Toyo showed integrity by apologizing in a respectful manner but also showed integrity to his team when he disobeyed Kinoshita's rules and won the game against the Americans twenty-nine to four. Toyo has great moral principles and values in the sense that he can be honest and respectful at times but at other times he has to take a stand for the greater good of his team. 

Toyo demonstrated integrity through each of the three conflicts in the novel and represented his moral values by resolving each conflict. The first conflict involved Junzo making fun that Toyo was a girl and he couldn't play baseball, Toyo defended himself during the beatings by Junzo by respectfully casting his position as a shortstop. In the second conflict, Toyo had to prove to Sotaro that baseball was worth the time and that it wasn't evil. Toyo told Sotaro that Bushido (the way of the warrior), was just like swinging a baseball bat and the baseball at its heart was Japanese. The third conflict stated that Toyo had to resolve the fight with the Meiji team, Toyo resolved the conflict because he explained the whole situation respectfully with full honesty and it was resolved with a baseball game which Ichiko won. Toyo demonstrated and showed integrity in the way he dealt with conflict with a respectful and honest standard yet it relates to his moral values. From this novel, we can learn the lesson that if you have good integrity and moral values you will eventually get rewarded even if it is not immediately as shown by the character Toyo. “Whoever however and wherever honourable change is an inevitable occurrence in one's life” Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz.