The Striker

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses violence and sexual content.

Asher Donovan’s car racing habit is a motif representing his attraction to danger as a means of regulating his emotions. Asher loves to race because it gives him a thrilling high that’s as satisfying as competing on the football pitch. The “powerful growl of the engine” sharpens his senses while dulling his anxieties (177). When he’s racing his friends, teammates, or rivals, he imagines he’s experiencing “what astronauts [experience] during a rocket launch—acceleration so powerful, it press[es] them into their seats through sheer force” (179). Tasting danger in this way exhilarates Asher and helps him to escape his trauma. For years, he believes that racing is a mere hobby that lets him “blow off steam” and temporarily forget his football worries. However, Scarlett DuBois and Ron Donovan ultimately help him to understand that he uses racing as a form of self-harm.

Scarlett urges Asher to stop racing because she doesn’t want him to keep putting himself in danger. She feels that Asher’s racing habit is proof that he doesn’t love himself, and she refuses to “stand by and watch [him] self-destruct” (503). Shortly thereafter, Ron claims that racing represents Asher’s death wish and is his way of punishing himself for failing to save his late friend Teddy.