Shoeless Joe

The baseball field is a repository for the dreams of the protagonist, Ray Kinsella, who nurtures the field like a child. The field is described as “soft as a child’s breath” (13) when Shoeless Joe first shows up at it. The baseball field that Ray builds becomes a symbol of many things. The field, like a child, becomes a metaphor for productivity and creativity that helps Ray give a concrete shape to his dreams. It is also a connecting bond between several characters in the novel. It creates new hopes and new friendships.

Ray's magical baseball field also has many of the characteristics of the Christian heaven. Ray, like Moses, brings people to a“Promised Land” that offers them salvation. In Ray’s magical, blessed baseball field, he provides a sanctuary for Shoeless Joe, an outcast and a sinner who has been blamed for taking bribes. The baseball field is the medium through which the ideal, transfigured state of the several characters in the book emerges and are made known.