Open

Agassi uses the motif of imprisonment to underscore his lack of agency as his father and the tennis academy molded the young boy for a career in tennis. Prison imagery first appears in the author’s description of his childhood home in Vegas. The barred windows of the house, its concrete surrounding wall, and its physical isolation in the Nevada desert added to his perception that he was perpetually chained to his father’s homemade tennis court. Describing how he helped create the tennis court, he ironically observes, “I’d helped feed the chain gang that built my cell. I’d helped measure and paint the white lines that would confine me” (31).

When Andre’s father sent him to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy against his wishes, he again encountered a prison-like environment, highlighting his lack of choice in being there. Noting “outbuildings that look like cell blocks,” he claims that he was “half expecting to find a guard tower and razor wire” (72). His later attempt to leave the academy, only to be retrieved by a staff member, confirms the involuntary nature of his incarceration.

Agassi uses the motif of his hairpiece to thematically elaborate on The Journey of Self-Discovery and Authenticity. The author’s revelation that he wore a hairpiece in the early years of his career highlights his inability to be his authentic self at that stage of his life: “Hair has been the crux of my public image, and my self-image, and it’s been a sham” (197). The memoir illustrates Andre’s deep insecurities as he concealed his premature balding while feeling equally anxious that he would be exposed for wearing a hairpiece. The text illustrates the extent of his anxiety by describing the time that he lost a match because he was preoccupied with the possibility that his battered toupee would fall off. Andre’s decision to shave his head and discard the hairpiece signaled an early step toward a more authentic existence.

Open uses islands as a recurring symbol of loneliness. The imagery first occurs when Agassi describes his love of football as a child. He explains that he preferred team sports to tennis because “in tennis you’re on an island. Of all the games men and women play, tennis is the closest to solitary confinement” (8). The author highlights the loneliness of a profession that relies entirely on individual performance rather than on working with others.

In addition, Agassi uses island imagery to convey how his childhood friendship with Perry made him feel less isolated: “I feel as if I’ve been on a desert island, with no one to talk to but the palm trees, and now a thoughtful, sensitive, like-minded castaway […] has come stumbling ashore” (65).

In the later chapters of the memoir, the author returns to the symbolism of islands to convey the growing emotional distance in his relationship with Brooke. While the couple escaped to island retreats to spend quality time together, their isolation from other people only emphasized the differences between them.