Preview

The Boys In The Boat Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
754 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Boys In The Boat Analysis
The Boys in the Boat is a memoir, it tells a part of the lives of eight rowers. The book is intended for all people who enjoy sports history. It is a beating the odds story meant to entertain, motivate, inspire, and teach of a forgotten story. The author is Daniel James Brown, he has written other books that all typically fall in the field of narrative nonfiction, by far his most famous work is The Boys in the Boat. The title is representative of the entire story. Each of the nine young men who trained their hearts out to defeat Hitler’s team of rowers, and capture gold in the olympics has a unique story, and they all share one thing in common that they call the boat. Joe Rantz is the main character in the book, he as well as the other rowers …show more content…
evil is a theme that is obviously apparent, the good forces of the United States are pitted against the evil minded nature of Hitler’s Germany. This overarching idea keeps the memoir suspenseful and allows the reader to always want to read the next page. It is a groundbreaking work because it is a true story that has been forgotten in the depression era. It is a great beating the odds thriller. The author writes to keep you wanting the next piece, there is always more and you want it with the way the author writes. Brown uses fairly basic vocabulary so as to make it quite understandable. I appreciated that it was an inspiring story that I had never heard before. I liked that the idea that hard work pays off can be applied to my own life and achieve gold and glory like these athletes did. Hard work pays off is an idea found throughout the memoir, and is what I believe Brown wants to tell young readers, for example, here: “It takes energy to get angry. It eats you up inside. I can't waste my energy like that and expect to get ahead. When they left, it took everything I had in me just to survive. Now I have to stay focused. I've just gotta take care of it myself like Joe Rantz”(96) This quote represents the idea that you have to give it every ounce of energy you have if you want to be successful, it is the idea of hard work paying off. The members of the team all know they have got to put their best stuff forward to succeed. Another idea that has made itself apparent

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “All were merged into one smoothly working machine; they were, in fact, a poem of motion, a symphony of swinging blades”, this quote stated by Daniel James Brown, author of The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. This inspiring biography is about the enthralling story behind US gold medal winner Joe Rantz. The book describes in detail the tremendous amount of work he and his fellow teammates at Washington University accomplished to take bring home the much coveted gold medal, at a time of great political strife throughout the world. In this enthralling book, Daniel Brown writes about the harsh life of Joe Rantz, where he faced abandonment by his family. The book is set during the Great Depression and during Hitler’s genocide of Non-Aryans. Through the use of pathos that is evidence of emotional…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jan Perkowski created a ten-part analysis outline to be used for analyzing different characteristics and functions of vampires that appear in film, television, and literature. This outline can be used to analyze the film The Lost Boys, and how the vampires in the film function as a metaphor for drug use, American nationalism, and a broken family structure, all of which were common in the 1980’s.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the novel Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown the character Joe Rantz had to show tremendous courage. Joe Rantz is a young man that grew up in Seattle and went to the University of Washington. Joe had a very sad past. His family left him when he was a young boy and told him that he had to survive on his own. It was very hard for him to survive and raise the money he needed for college. In college, Joe decides to row for the Washington University crew team. He trains very hard and his boat wins many different awards and he soon becomes part of one of the best boats in the country. While this is all going on, Joe decides to visit his family in Seattle. This by itself is courageous, since his family rejected him. What he does though is the…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    It makes me see a good team that overcomes great odds and becomes a great team no matter the adversities. The author shows that as a team they could overcome great odds, but in the final game of most of the kids life the state championship game. Through all the adversities and obstacles they had gotten past as a team, it seemed through the blood, sweat and tear along the way once the final whistle blew the seniors and many of the other players just didn’t have any more to give. They now would have to start new, with their lives not ending when the final whistle blew but just…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Growing up socially, Louie was poor, but his identification of an italian american pushed him to rebel against the limitations he had around him. At the time he expressed himself in inappropriate and destructive ways, such as acting rebelliously; stealing from neighbors and local businesses. “----” His popular older brother, Pete helped straighten himself out he inspired a new challenge: running. Louie put all his determination and perseverance into running. He continued the act of giving everything for running “____”, therefor overcoming his adversity through physical emotional and mental resilience. Because of this Louis has made a himself a forever famous olympian who competed at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. This perseverance with adversity and the resilience in such experiences have led to to build up allowed Louis to survive the war. While stranded in a life-raft for forty-seven days he perceived it as just another limitation or obstacle to overcome. Alike, after being captured by the Japanese with their cruelties and humiliations of the labor camp, Louie never gave in to despair or hopelessness because he had such strong perseverance. (14)…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This story is about a nineteen year old soldier named Paul Baumer followed by his friends while at war and it shows how it effects each and every one of them physically and mentally.“We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through.”(Remarque 13) World War I was a tragic war with more than 9 million soldiers dead, and roughly 21 million were injured in the end. Germany and France both sent millions of men between the ages 15-50 into the war. Throughout the book and the movie you can see and understand all of the tragic deaths that occurred on both sides of this war. Not only were there millions of deaths by the fighting but also many deaths by other things such as, soldier dying from lack of food, lack of reinforcements, rats running through the trenches, and lastly deadly gases in the air. Any soldier that actually did survive was considered “lucky” to Paul Baumer. “We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life.…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Boy Film Analysis

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This weekend we had a string of new releases, none of which seemed to do so well with critics. Among them we have The Boy which seeing the trailer didn't seem that promising to begin with regardless I knew I wouldn't be able to stay away from this one cause I am a sucker for horror films about creepy evil dolls. So let's begin,…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Open Boat Analysis

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the short stories the "Open Boat" written by Stephen Crane and "Cathedral" written by Raymond Carver, tell a tale about different groups of people who go through life changing experiences and come out in the end as a stronger community. Everywhere we look communities surround us all. From our families and friends to the people we go to school with. Communities make up the essence of our everyday life.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A context/quote/explain paragraph is like a body paragraph from an analytical essay. You need to reword the statement given, find the quotation that best suits the context and then explain the quotation.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This meant that even though they were required to carry the physical load and bear the emotional consequences, they still had to “fight” for survival. Every characteristic or thought was taken in a positive manner and helped them develop confidence and motivation that lead them to overcome the devastation of war. For example there was an epiphany for Jimmy Cross at the end of the story when he realized the predicament of not being focused in war. This lead him to burn the letters, which shows a great deal of confidence and motivation, developed during war. The act of him burning the letter made sure that he was willing to forget the fantasies about his girlfriend Martha and become focused in war. He had managed to acquire the courage by simply an incident that could have potentially proven to be fatal. Therefore this helped in developing confidence and the ability to be focused while also motivating him to be alert in war. Therefore this gives us insight that the author provides details about the consequences of war faced by the soldiers not only physically but also mentally such as fear, love and grief. The ability or mental strength required to overcome the atrocities of war is immense and this is intensified by gravity of the precarious situation. “They carried their reputation.” Thereby leading to this conclusion that war has many social and personal consequences that are reluctantly compelled onto a soldier but it undeniably lead to the development of confidence and…

    • 1501 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    I hold a soft place in my heart for biographies, due to the fact that the truth is often more interesting that the human mind can make up. Telling the story of a man's life is beyond difficult. Telling the story of an olympian and a prisoner of war during world war two, and doing it well, to me that seems near impossible. Part of how fascinating this book is must be attributed Loiue Zamperini himself and his tremendous life, but you fail to give yourself enough credit for making sure the reader feels all the emotions that Mr. Zamperini feels, you do that through your meticulous research. During reading about the brutality that the POWs faced your heart sinks. You are inspired by the fact that the POW’s try to maintain dignity through regular acts of disobedience. As…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Boys: Short Story Analysis

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sellers, H. “Energy.” The Practice of Creative Writing: A Guide for Students. Ed. Leasa Burton. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. 69-100. Print.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Boat

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In “The Boat” by Alistair Macleod, the boat, and the ill-fitting clothes he wore significantly represent the confinement and the father’s inability to break free from tradition, reinforcing that tradition can suppress one’s dream for greater things. To begin, the boat itself is a symbol of the fathers bounding to the sea, showing his obligation to follow customs. The boat is categorize with a “marine clutch and a high speed reverse gear and was painted on an oblong plate across her stern. Jenny Lynn had been my mother’s maiden name and the boat was called after her as another link in the chain of tradition”(Macleod 3) The high speed reverse gear depicts how the father is not moving forward along with the light green name of Jenny Lynn that demonstrates the father’s sacrifice for the fishing custom to support his family. The Jenny Lynn that he receives through tradition gives him a constant reminder that his way of life may never change and that his dreams are out of his reach. Furthermore, the clothing in his closet symbolizes the father’s imprisonment with tradition. The narrator mentions “his ill-fitted serge suit, the two or three white shirts that strangled him and the square black shoes that pinched” (Macleod 4) The square black shoes that pinched him means that the life of fishing that he inherits does not fit, the life he lives is simply to overpowering that it damages him. The white shirts that suffocates him shows the struggles he faces everyday that he is unable to separate from. His attire is so inflexible that it was leaving him trapped in one place incapable to grasp his own desires. Lastly, at the father’s death his departure speculates that it is suicide to liberate his son and himself from an unhappy future bringing the fishing tradition with him. When the father’s body is discovered “the white green stubble of his whiskers had continued to grow in death. Physically as he lay there with the brass chains on his wrist and seaweed in his hair”(Macleod…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gilgamesh and Superman

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Introduction, nature of the goals, obstacles that must be overcome, and the heroes ultimate success or failure.…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rowing is a team sport, and requires a fully devoted team to succeed, as well as academics at Belmont Hill. One thing that sets Belmont Hill far apart from any other school is its goal to make the campus a happy and comfortable place for all of its students. They understand that not everyone is a professional at every subject, and help arrange for tutors to help you progress through challenging material. This concept is also present in the book The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. This is similar to rowing and how Joe keeps his team positive and ready to race. One of the most important parts is keeping everyone “on the same note” and keeping consistent strokes in order to flawlessly propel their shell. Another example of teamwork is when the team qualifies for the olympics, but can’t afford to travel to Germany. As a team, they raise money and soon meet their goal. As Joe Rantz progressed into his life as a young adult, he learned to trust his teammates, was devoted to doing what was…

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays