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John Brown's The Boys In The Boat

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John Brown's The Boys In The Boat
The early 1930’s were not just the years of the Great Depression or the ruling of Hitler. The author John Brown provides thrilling insight on the 1936 Berlin Olympics where he tells a story of The Boys in the Boat. The strong narrative the author writes is shown by the prologue when he is interviewing Rantz himself which is who he gets much of the story from. Brown finds a way to use Joe Rantz to represent the whole team of boys. The story of Joe Rantz creates such determination and will power but it was never about Joe, it was always about the boat and the nine other boys in it. Brown creates three major elements throughout the book including the art of rowing, the major events in history during that time, and the humble backgrounds of each …show more content…
He describes rowing in a way that is different than any other sport because it needs unison and that’s when the author really goes in depth about the word team. He talks about team effort really well by describing slumps they go through and how the whole team would suffer if just one person went through one. Brown brings out constant tension with the two boys falling ill right before the most important race in the Olympics. Then there were the bad winds, late start, and getting the worst lane. Practice and competitions were never taken lightly and the team’s one goal was always to make it to Berlin. However, it was only the constant battles they would get thrown at them that would hand them the gold medals at the 1936 Olympics. The bond he talks about with these boys having is the reason they got as far as they did and the reason it differs so much from other sports. Rowing in the Olympics now is not a popular sport but the author really goes into detail about how many people from all over attended these competitions just to watch or cheer on their team. He talks about the constant enthusiasm from the spectators and the beginning of the press. The competitions were even broadcasted through media like newspapers and the radio was even addressed when describing the interviews with Al Ulbrickson, Tom Bolles, and Ky Ebright. Radio broadcasters were there to cast these events so people at home could get theirs ready to listen

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