Adversity In George Orwell's The 1936 Olympic Games

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Synopsis Joe grew up in Sequim, Washington during the Great Depression. From the start, Joe’s happy childhood is snatched from his grasp with his mother’s death. His life continues to run off the rails when his brother and father marry a set of twins and his new half-siblings are born. His stepmother’s cruelty to him and his father’s supposed ignorance of it begin the development of Joe’s trust issues. His only remaining family abandons him in a half-built house in the rainy swamps of Sequim, as they look for a better life in Seattle. Here, the exposition is set; lonely years on his own, with only his solitary, and largely self-reliant mind to keep him company. Adversity is an influential tool that has the power to sculpt a life into one of poverty and struggle, or carve a pathway to success. Joe begins his journey mourning the loss of his old life, and fiercely determined to make a better one for himself. In his effort to improve his circumstances, Joe learns that much like how the water that supports a boat is …show more content…

Propaganda and Nazi rule surrounded the team, and the pressure piled on for their qualifying race. At the start line, their coxswain missed that start call, and they began almost two strokes behind - a massive loss in a race like this. Strategically playing the underdog, Washington stayed back, at a low stroke rate but with powerful strokes, slowly digging their way upwards. With a ghostly, pneumonia-stricken stroke seat, it was a wonder they made it past the halfway mark, but this sliver of time was all they had. In the last twelve hundred meters, they made their sprint, pulling across the finish line six-tenths of a second ahead of the Italian boat. And that is how Joe and his eight teammates won gold, forever immortalized as America’s team in the 1936

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