Final Reflection

Tim Tebow's memoir, "Through My Eyes" was an overall solid book. I would not recomment this memoir to anyone who is not absoulutely passionate and dedicated  to football. Unfortunately, for me, my sport is basketball so I struggled through this book. Tim Tebow and Nathan Whitaker's writing style bored me. The memoir had far too many details on insignificant  topics. My initial impression and final impression are basically the same. In both the initial and final impressions I thought that the book was relativiely boring and over detailed. The memoir was informative, but maybe too informative at least for my liking. In my eyes Night by Wiesel was much more intriquing than Through My Eyes not only because Night has more action and tragic events, but because the writing style of Wiesel in Night was much more attractive to the reader than that of Tim Tebow and Nathan Whitaker in Through My Eyes. Maus I by Art Speigleman was also more attractive to me as the reader because it was basically all dialogue and less useless details that embodied Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow. If I could re-do the blog assignment I would pick an entirely different  memoir. Through My Eyes was a great memoir, but it just didn't  suit my taste. The information in Through My Eyes was not boring but  the way that Tim Tebow and Nathan Whitaker worded  the content portrayed  it as boring. For all these reasons I do  not highly regard Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow and will not recommend this memoir to anyone who is not passionate about football and or Tim Tebow.

Connections

The work that I chose that compares is called "Lose Yourself". The name of the song may not convince someone that the song has anything to do with Tim Tebow, but  once you hear the lyrics I'm sure you will know that it is very much like Tim Tebow. The first two verses go like this, "His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy; There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's speghetti , he's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to drop bombs , but he keeps forgetting what he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud, he opens his mouth, but the words won't come out, he's chokin' how, everybody's chokin' now, the clocks run out, times up, over blaw!Snap, back to reality oh, there goes gravity, oh, there goes Rabbit he choked, he's so mad but he won't , give up that easy, no, he won't have it he knows, his whole backs to these ropes, it don't matter he's dope, He knows that but he's broke, he's so stagnant he knows, when he goes back to his mobile home that's when it's , back to the lab again, you, this whole rhapsody better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him." "Lose Yourself" has both literal and figurative connections to Through My Eyes. The song connects literally to Through My Eyes because when Eminem says, "His whole  backs to the ropes, it don't matter that he's dope" This bar is directly related to Tim Tebow because even though Tebow has established himself as a winner and a great football player, the media still puts pressure on him to perform and the media harshly criticizes every little mistake of Tim Tebow's. The first bar relates to Tim Tebow's work ethic which is extremely painful, it goes like this "His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy..." Often times in Through My Eyes Tim Tebow talks about how he feels after one of his world famous workouts, he uses words like sweaty, exhausted, weak and heavy . Three of the words Tebow uses in his memoir are in the first bar of "Lose Yourself".

There is also several figurative deeper connections to Through My Eyes in "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. "The whole crowd goes loud, he opens his mouth, but the words won't come out". This bar holds irony because Tim Tebow is humorously known for being in photos on the football field yelling with his mouth wide open. It looks like he is screaming very loud, but no words are coming out of his mouth similar to this bar of "Lose Yourself". The name of the song "Lose Yourself" even connects to Through My Eyes and to Tim Tebow's  life. With all of the pressure of the media and the temptations of being an NFL football player, it is easy for Tim Tebow to lose himself. Tim could lose his moral value in temptation, but he doesn't  and he won't ever lose himself. "Lose Yourself" by Eminem connects very well with Tim Tebow's memoir, "Through My Eyes".

Title Significance

"So many people have tried to tell my story so many different ways, so it's kind of fun to be able to tell it how it really happened through my eyes. That's why I named it that", Tebow said recently in the Denver Post. The literal meaning of the title of Tim Tebow's memoir, Through My Eyes is simple and straightforward. throughout Tim Tebow's career, writers and journalists have attempted ot portray Tim's story. So in his memoir Tim tells his story in his way, his words, and through his eyes. The Denver Post website quoted Tim Tebow when he said, "Thank the Lord I don't have to live with the roller coaster that you all make out of my life." This quote means that other people have fabricated Tim Tebow's life so much so that Tim Tebow can't even imagine himself living in something that is supposed to be his life. Everyone has a different opinion about Tim Tebow, but the one that is most important, efficient, and accurate is his opinion. The front and back flaps of the memoir hold the true literal meaning of the title, "Through My Eyes" when co author Nathan Whitaker says, "At every step Tebow's life has defied convention and expectation. While parts of his life have been well documented, these stories have always been filtered through the opinions and words of others. With this book he offers a first hand, never-before-told account of how it all really happened on the field, behind the scenes and through his eyes."

There is some figurative language used through this title. The irony behind the title is that the story is told through first person as almost all memoirs are, but I do not think that this irony was intended or not. The firuarative meaning of Through My Eyes is very similar to the literal meaning. The figurative meaning of the memoir is that people all across the globe have heard Tim Tebow's story from someone else's view, through someone else's eyes, but now in this memoir you get the real thing. A lot of people might look at a superstar quarterback like Tim Tebow and assume that it's an easy life and that it was an easy path to get to the point that he is at now. There is more to Tim Tebow than what most people see. Tim Tebow lives out  the life that he puts forward on television and in the media. People see Tim Tebow on commercials and on T.V. winning the Heisman and they may see glitz and glamour but they don't know what goes on in Tim's head. They do not see what goes on behind the scenes; they don't see Tim praying every day and night or Tim working out five days a week doing some of the most vigorating workouts known to man! The figurative meaning of Through My Eyes is that there is much more to Tim Tebow than what we see on television and on the football field. There is a lot that we don't see and maybe, just maybe it is better that we no longer keep Tim Tebow's secret life as a secret so that his "haters" and critcs will have nothing to hate and criticize.

Emotional Reaction

The part of the memoir that I chose to discuss my personal reaction to the content and the writing was chapter ten: Getting My Feet Wet in the Swamp. I’m a huge football fan, and I’ve always found the sport both interesting to watch and to play. Despite my interest in football, chapter ten had just simply too much detail on Tim’s football games for my liking.

            The title of chapter ten: Getting My Feet Wet in the Swamp is referring to Tim Tebow playing his first games as a quarterback for the “Gators” of the University of Florida. “The Swamp” is what Florida Gator fans call their stadium. In the chapter Tebow discusses how had always dreamed of playing the quarterback position for the University, “I had grown up watching Florida quarterbacks…, and Robby, Peter, and I had played so many games together on the farm, over the years”(98). This statement by Tim Tebow did not bother me at all, what did was when he took two and a half pages to describe how he and his brothers would play. I was bored throughout the rest of the chapter just for that reason; I was anticipating for it to end. The chapter could have been improved if the author would have transitioned into another topic sooner than he did. It also could have been more intriguing if Tebow would have varied his sentence structure throughout the chapter, the lack of diversity in his sentence structure might have been what made me bored during the reading. The next chapter is called Ending Up in the Desert so let’s hope it’s a little more “juicy” as my mother likes to call it than chapter ten. 

Passage Analysis

  "Father, if you want another preacher in this world, you give him to me. You give me Timmy, and I will raise him to be a preacher"(3).


            These words are stated in the beginning of Chapter 2 before Tim was born. The quote was said by Tim's father after he had finished preaching in the Philippines in 1986. The quote was directed to God after Tim's father had become heavily burdened by the millions of babies being aborted in America. The quote on page 3 demonstrates foreshadowing because it gives hints and suggestions early in the plot of the story to anticipate the birth of Tim Tebow later in the plot. The quote is also a flashback because the quote is an interruption of story's chronology to introduce another topic.

            The passage is significant because Tim was born a year later, even though his mother was in her late 40's, which is considered too late in life to have a baby. The name Timothy means "honoring God." When Tim isn't playing football, he is preaching to those who need comforting, such as orphans, former criminals and anyone else who needs it.Tim's father's prayer to God came true, Tim's dad taught him to be a preacher and that's exactly what Tim is doing.

Initial Impressions

                The memoir that I chose to read is Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow with Nathan Whitaker. One of the main reasons why i chose Through My Eyes was because I followed Tim Tebow through his college football career at the University of Florida, and his first and second years in the NFL. I also chose Through My Eyes because the co-author, Nathan Whitaker is one of my father's business associates. In Through My Eyes I expect to read about Tim Tebow's childhood, introduction to football, his faith and religon. and his football career as an adult so far. I'm looking forward to reading about his journey to winning the Heisman Trophy in college, and his missionary work in the Phillipines. I'm a big fan of Tim Tebow and what he represents, he's a great athelete and also a great person; so for those reasons I had no hesitation in reading this book. The cover of Through My Eyes shows a close up of Tim Tebow holding a football. His facial expression is very intense, so I'm expecting his attitude in the book to be intense as well. On Tim's face there is black eye paint under his left eye that reads,"Through My Eyes." The eye paint is significant because Tim Tebow's trademark is to have insirational words inscribed into his eye paint. The back cover of Through My Eyes has comments regarding the book from four famous figures, Chuck Norris, Tony Dungy, Urban Meyer, and Darius Rucker.They all had nice words to say about Tim Tebow's memoir, Through My Eyes and about Tim's character.