The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the novel "Shoeless Joe" by W.P. Kinsella. Specifically it will contain a book report with a character analysis of Ray Kinsella, the main character in the novel. "Shoeless Joe" was the story behind the movie "Field of Dreams," and it tells the story of the Kinsella family who live on a farm in Iowa. Mainly, it talks about Ray Kinsella, a farmer who is not making ends meet. He is industrious, but he is also a dreamer who thinks that anything in life can be possible, and that makes him open and accepting of what happens in the novel. He is an intriguing character who makes the impossible seem possible somehow.
             Ray is a dreamer, and a baseball fanatic. Early in the novel he says, "My father, I've been told, talked baseball statistics to my mother's belly while waiting for me to be born" (Kinsella 6). Ray loves his family, but in the novel, it seems that he may love baseball more. He tears up part of their livelihood to build a field for an imaginary team to play on, and this is something most people would not even think of doing, especially if their finances were not that good. Annie, his wife, supports him, and has much more patience than most wives would have if their husband came up with a crazy idea like this.
             Throughout the novel it is clear Ray is a dreamer, and this makes it possible for him to see and hear things others cannot. For example, in Fenway Park when he goes to the game with J.D. Salinger, he sees a message on the scoreboard that only he and Salinger are able to see. Kinsella writes, "It flashes a line of statistical information, leaves it on the scoreboard for, I suppose, thirty seconds. Being no stranger to the 'Baseball Encyclopedia,' I recognize the information as an entry, but not an entry I would ever have considered important. [...] I look around furtively to see if anyone else is aware of what is happening" (Kinsella 77). No one else...