The Boys In The Boat Sparknotes

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A story of the perseverance of one man during hard times in the extreme sport of rowing is recanted in the book “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown. This story takes place in the northwestern corner of the 1930s era United States in a then little known city called Seattle and the college located there, University of Washington. The main character Joe not only has to face challenges growing up in the Great Depression but also must face the challenges of rowing that should he fail he’ll end up like the millions of other destitute and penniless people. In the end Joe and his teammates persevere through the challenges of that time and prevail as champions in the 1936 Nazi Germany Olympic Games.Brown used journals and the old man Joe himself …show more content…

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At the beginning of freshman tryouts for the rowing team the coach described rowing as more of a hero’s journey of pain and perseverance which showed that persistence in training and competition was necessary in order to succeed, “The boys heard time and time again that the course they had to embark on was difficult beyond imagining, that both their bodies and their moral characters would be tested in the months ahead, and that only a very few of them who possessed near superhuman physical endurance and mental toughness would prove good enough to wear a W on their chest,” (41). The words “difficult” and tested” connotate that the rowing program will be very challenging as rowers undergo many mental and physical trials that will be insurmountable if one does not have superhuman persistence. Plus, the words “time and time again” connotate that these trials will occur nearly every day, also connoting that the successful rowers must have superhuman persistence. On the physical side, rowers have to persist through injuries that occur all throughout their bodies, during the race and afterward too. While rowing the human body is unable to produce enough aerobic energy, so must resort to using anaerobic energy which produces lactic acid which is painful to the rowers. That means every race these rowers

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