The Boys In The Boat Essay

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The Boys in the Boat Essay Daniel Brown’s The Boys in the Boat is a book that shows2 the strength of the University of Washington’s crew team. The book teaches many valuable lessons from life in the 1930’s. This piece of literature is based on the interviews, which went on for seven years. Joe Rantz, the star of the crew team, was abandoned by his father and step mom, for the second time at age 17. He eventually found comfort in the Olympic bound crew team. Joe Rantz went through many hardships when he was by himself, as well as the intense team workouts, the following quotes exemplify how Joe channeled his energy to be a great crew teammate, that could trust and be trusted by his teammates. Joe grew up with his step mother and father, He lived with them like normal until the age 10, when he was temporarily kicked out of the house. At the time young Joe missed home but it was not the worst experience for him. When he turned 17 years old his parents left him in a uncompleted house and moved to another state with Joe’s brothers. Joe found it extremely difficult to carry on all by …show more content…

They have been shaped into better people and given something to talk about. They needed to spend a lot of time in and out of practice to truly trust one another. All of the boys in the boat, besides the coxswain, have a matched physical potential. They all could hit a certain rowing speed, but they needed an emotional connection to be good. An example of the importance of the teams connection is in this quote, “ It isn't enough for the muscles of a crew to work in unison; their hearts and minds must also be at one” - George Yeoman Pocock 297. The whole team must be on their A-Game or else the whole boat is off. If the team started rowing off pace or in the opposite direction the boat will become unstable or even turn around. The trust component was the biggest factor to a successful crew team, allowing them to all row

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