Perseverance In Daniel James Brown's The Boys In The Boat

Everyone goes through challenges, but it is up to an individual to overcome and persevere through them. Daniel James Brown demonstrates his meaning of perseverance by writing The Boys in the Boat. Occurring around the Great Depression, this novel follows a group of boys from the University of Washington row team, who go through severe hardships to receive a gold medal in the 1936 Olympics. The novel focuses on the character Joe Rantz and his life journey to become a row team member. Joe Rantz, perseveres through a rollercoaster of hopeless situations, including rejection from his family, severe hunger, and the struggles from the Depression-era. The Boys in the Boat uses Joe Rantz’s young life to portray our ability to overcome obstacles and

By living independently this show’s Joe is self-motivating for the betterment of himself. Joe is not working to make his family proud, he is doing this for himself. Also by self-motivation he is seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Having the self-motivation to stay in school, he learned “If you simply kept your eyes open, it seemed, you just might find something valuable in the most unlikely places. The trick was to recognize a good thing when you saw it, no matter how odd or worthless it might at first appear, no matter who else might just walk away and leave it behind” (37). This is the climax of Joe Rantz, he lives through the first ten years of his life in difficultly. Just when the reader thinks he reaches the point where he is mentally broken, Joe gets stronger not just physically but mentally by working and realizing that everything in life has value and purpose. An individual can feel intrigued because it is amazing how much people can preserve and stay focused on their goals with no set individual figure. Joe mentally motivates himself to work hard at his jobs and attending school. Anyone who reads about Joe sees this because he never gives up on anything no matter how hopeless his situation may be. As time passes, Joe is reunited with Harry and his step family. But it all goes

Throughout his young life, Joe shows hard work, “Joe feasted on salmon that night, alone in the house. Then he set about turning the poaching of salmon into a business. Each Saturday afternoon Joe hiked the three miles into town with one or more enormous salmon sung of his shoulder,” (61). When fishing you need to patient, Joe’s hard work in fishing allows him to persevere his hunger situation as well as getting cash by selling the fish. Joe hard work allows him to overcome his obstacle of hunger and survival by taking the time to catch the fish, carry the fish three miles into town every Saturday by himself. Joe shows hard work in everything he does, he bettered his education by going Seattle for a year. Living with his brother Fred and Thula’s twin sister for schooling at Roosevelt High School. Joe worked hard to earn good grades so he could surmount the odds of attending a four year college. Joe received a card from the head crew coach at the University of Washington. This was Joe’s ticket into college, all his hard work from physical labor and grades constructed him to go against the odds of being hopeless to attending college. Later in the fall, he attended the University Washington and worked hard to stay in shape and make the row team. He was announced first-boat third seat. In chapter five Joe’s significant other’s mother read the paper stating “Joe Rantz Makes First Crew” (80). All of the hard work Joe Rantz did since