Daniel+and+Adrian+B

In the poem, The Knight, by Adrienne Rich portrays the theme of extreme pressure, as the author describes the everyday pressure of a knight. Towards the end of the poem Rich displays a feeling of tension on the knight by saying, “Who will unhorse the rider and free him from between the walls of iron, the emblems crushing his chest with their weight?” The feeling of tension shows up through the words, “who will unhorse the rider” as in who will take over for the rider, who will relieve him from his strenuous job. When Adrienne Rich states, “the emblems crushing his chest with their weight” as in the pressure of his town crushing down on his chest making sure he does not forget who he is to his town or country. Therefore “the emblems” represents the important people in the knight’s life, such as the King and Queen because they rely on him to get the countries deeds done, to represent the country to the best of his ability. For the knight failure is not an option when it comes to his job, his entire country is leaning on him to protect his country, if he does not do his job, not only does the knight suffer, but the whole country suffers at the same time.

Furthermore, this can relate to the story of Mike Winchell in the novel, __Friday Night Lights__, because the town relies on Mike to get the football team down the field. They rely on him at the end of the game to make sure their team gets a touchdown and a W at the end of the game. If he does not to his job right, the whole town is going to end up suffering from it; the football teams fate relies upon how Mike Winchell does in that game. According to Bissinger, “but no one would have to have a greater year, be more superb, than Mike Winchell at quarterback. Now, more than ever, it was up to him” (51). “Now, more than ever, it was up to him” states that the season is now on Mike’s shoulders, the fate of the team is up to him now that Boobie Miles is injured. That is an important part in the quote because that means that Mike has the extreme pressure of 20,000 people, an entire city, on his shoulders waiting for him to take the team to the state playoffs. This town will not accept anything outside of a win in the state championship game. Pressure gets even harder when your other star player is out due to an injury and eventually quits in the middle of the season. Mike Winchell relates to the knight in the ways that they both have thousands of people beliefs and support behind them, if either of them mess up, the whole town is going to suffer from their mistake.