Taylor Lenzi
English 1550
November 18, 2013
Final Essay

Compare/Contrast Final Essay

“The Decision” will always and forever be one of Cleveland’s darkest times for a city who has not had much to cheer about in past times. The entire city thought LeBron James would lift the city up, but in the end he was held accountable for many broken hearts. On the other hand, a writer by the name of Tom Bissell once put himself in a dark time as well relying on large quantities of cocaine and an unhealthy obsession with video games. With LeBron James in Wright Thompson’s “Believeland” and the cocaine and video games in Tom Bissell’s “Video Games: The Addiction” creating an unwanted atmosphere, they show how quickly changing one single variable can cause such a strong negative effect on a human being’s or even a whole city’s dream.
In Thompson’s “Believeland” the proud city attempts to get over the “the person who left and remember what it used to be with him here” (Par. 1). Yes, the fans call “the person who left” LeBron James.
Tom Bissell was once a writer who wrote several books and journalism pieces. In his “Video Games: The Addiction” he finds himself needing a new Xbox everywhere he moved and becoming addicted and having trouble finding cocaine until he found an anonymous Russian dealer to supply him.
One contrast in both of these are the form and structure are different in each article and how they inform the reader. “Believeland” is told from the point of view of one person going around and hearing stories being told from other Clevelanders. In the text there are different subtitles such as “Detroit Avenue and West 58th Street” and “Euclid Avenue and East 93rd Street” that show where we was hearing stories from. Thompson travels around Cleveland collecting first hand stories from the people who been through it all to understand what it’s like doing so. He is telling the story of others and the hardships of what it was like in Cleveland. “They are proud people, which is why they did not like being the foil in The Decision” stated Thompson (Par. 75). Thompson wants us as a reader to feel what it’s like to be in their shoes having someone in LeBron James who meant so much to that city just walk out and abandon Cleveland so easily By the author doing so showing us actual stories and real life people you can feel the emotions of the city and people as a whole. The essay was brought to life and you could feel the passion that it once had now all of that was gone and forgotten. "This town is dying," a customer says. "If I could leave, too, I think I'd be out." "Why?" the bar owner asks. "The future's not bright in Cleveland," he says (qtd. in “Believeland” par. 70-72).
On the other hand, “Video Games: The Addiction” is told from Tom Bissell’s own experiences he actually went through. As a reader you sense as if this could actually have been you and brings the essay together to really show you what he went through. It was informing us that drugs are bad and can ruin lives which made this essay serious and you could take away much from it gaining that more knowledge about drug abuse. Bissell is telling his own story unlike Thompson who was hearing and rewriting stories he was told about. Bissell explains what it was like from his perspective to actually be associated with this stuff himself. Describing his actions like “This coke, my friend told me, had not been "stepped on" with any amphetamine, and I pretended to know what that meant. I felt as intensely focused as a diamond-cutting laser; Grand Theft Auto IV was ready to go. My friend and I played it for the next 30 hours straight” (Par. 13). His life was now fully taken over by this addiction. Seriously? Playing for 30 hours straight? That’s where it gets extreme and your life was now taken over by video games while on coke.
In the very beginning Thompson sets the mood telling us he visited a former pitcher who was “the only major league player ever killed by a pitched ball and, naturally, a Cleveland Indian” (Par. 3). This goes to show Cleveland’s luck in the past hasn’t been all that great. I like how Thomson used that because it puts in perspective Cleveland has a city has been through some rough times. This is another contrast between the two texts; the mood. “That's what they will tell you, and you will realize that there are two Cleveland’s: the one that exists today and the ghost city floating just above it, in the memory of the people who've been here for a long time, and in the imagination of those who just arrived (Par. 10).” It’s a much more depressing mood and gloomier topic. Cleveland has been one of the tops depressing cities and the sports teams have not brought the town any excitement with not having been to playoffs and contending for quite a while.
Bissell describes playing video games first hand. Having him describe playing the game makes the mood and tone not so depressing like “Believeland.” It was a serious problem at the time but I felt he made it sort of funny. He said, “When you finally hop off the bike, the citizens of Vice City mumble and yell insults. You approach a man in a construction worker's outfit” (Par. 8). It seemed like these actions were daily occurrences. Like they were always regularly happening you beating someone to death. Bissell showing us what the gameplay is like brightens up the mood a bit and shows you how much fun he was having unlike the miserable city of Cleveland.
“It's like visiting a museum. Look, kids, this used to be America. This empty building used to be the Croatian newspaper. This empty lot used to be where John Rockefeller lived. This stadium used to be a stadium. This buried dust used to be Eliot Ness. Cleveland was home to the first home mail delivery, the first street light, the first streetcar, the first gas-powered car, the first X-ray, the first traffic light, and on and on. Life Savers were created here. So was Superman. Yes, Cleveland used to be the center of America's rise” (Par.16-17). You could see that Cleveland once was a popular well rounded place to be. LeBron is a prime example of what was Cleveland. This gets you a clear idea of what LeBron meant to everyone. The city has gone downhill losing everything it once was known for. “He is a 6-foot-8 steel mill (Par. 18-19).” Fans started burning, crossing his name out on jerseys. They were all in disgust. The fans savior was on gone and they had no one else to turn to for hope. LeBron was that hope and with him leaving that hope vanished. All “The Decision” did was toy with people’s emotions and bring the city down to their darkest moment.
To compare “Video Game: The Addiction” has a turn for the worst as well. “Once upon a time I wrote in the morning, jogged in the late afternoon and spent most of my evenings reading” (Par. 1). Bissell’s life took a complete 360 much like Cleveland did. “These days I play video games in the morning, play video games in the afternoon and spend my evenings playing video games (Par. 2).” His life was controlled by video games. Everything in his life didn’t matter besides video games making them his first priority. Once being the fantastic writer he was, now turned into a gamer 24/7 forgetting about writing all together. He would buy a new game system everywhere he moved too. “I woke up this morning at 8am fully intending to write this article. Instead, I played Left 4 Dead until 5pm” (Par. 5). You could really imagine how bad it was getting having him state he would be up until 5 in the morning playing. Tom buying a new gaming console everywhere he went showed that is addiction was very serious and couldn’t be stopped. We would waste tons of cash just in investing these games. They were starting to take over his life and basically did. “Soon I was walking into the night, handing hundreds of dollars in cash to a Russian man whose name I did not even know, waiting in alleys for him to come back – which he always did, though I never fully expected him to – and retreating home, to my Xbox, to GTA IV” (Par. 25). Spending hundreds of dollars a week means he was really sucked in and there was so stopping him. He was throwing his life away. That’s extreme to spend all that money a week throwing all you worked for away because addiction got the best of him. He even started sleeping in clothes, having unclean hair, and doing lines before class. Bissell’s life was now taken over and rolling straight downhill heading for no good.
Cleveland felt a connection with LeBron James. One Cleveland fan stated, "I was caught up in it. I felt LeBron James was very important. We all went too far. Cleveland, in its desperation, went too far” (Par. 53). Cleveland going too far was basically like putting you’re your eggs in one basket. Everybody devoted their respect, time, love, and emotions all too LeBron. In the end they got hurt by all this and once again found themselves with no one to look up too and no one to turn to too save the day. The citizens all thought LeBron was part of them. Because LeBron was from Akron growing up just like these Cleveland citizens they all thought he would understand. They thought he understood their past, present and future. "You're talking about a deep love that people had for him, as a player, and also coming from the area, there's a very powerful connection, and people were heartbroken” (qtd. in “Believeland” Par 124-125). With LeBron knowing what’s like being from around here and has hard it is to grow up in these streets the city figured he knew but in the end he didn’t. LeBron didn’t know what impact he really had. It was a close emotional connection he had with the entire city.
LeBron and Niko bother showed signs of hope. Little part of each other connected with the Cleveland and Bissell. LeBron gave Cleveland hopes and dreams that the city would rise again. Niko gave Bissell hope that someday he would rise out of this dark period in his life and get it back together. The bad times would all come to an end. Hope was given between the people and LeBron; Bissell and Niko.
In Bissell’s text he ended up growing a connection and relation with GTA character Niko. “Niko was not my friend, but I felt for him, deeply. He was trying, he was doing his best, but he was falling into habits and ways of being that did not reflect his best self. By the end of his long journey, Niko and I had been through a lot together” (Par. 30). With both of them going through a lot together, they both grew together. “Playing GTA IV on coke for weeks and then months at a time, I learned that maybe all a game can do is point at the person who is playing it, and maybe this has to be enough” (Par. 28).
Wright Thompson’s “Believeland” and Tom Bissell’s “Video Games: The Addiction” have many comparisons and contrasts in their two texts. LeBron James and cocaine having being the two variables that have brought the connection between the two show how much something added or deleted can effect and change the rest of the things around not only a single person but an entire culture and community.

Works Cited
Bissell, Tom. "Video Games: The Addiction." The Guardian. The Observer, 20 Mar. 2010. Web. 08 Oct. 2013
Thompson, Wright. "OTL: Believeland." ESPN.com. Outside The Lines, n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2013.