The Contender
The Contender
The contender by Robert Lipsyte is an exciting novel with each chapter having something new to learn about the book. Lipsyte does a good job describing the characters and showing their emotional and physical feelings. The protagonist of the novel is a black seventeen-year-old man named Alfred Brooks, a high school dropout living with Aunt Pearl and her 3 daughters in Harlem, New York City. He begins to train at a boxing club in the streets because he has a lot of issues, including his friend James, who is sent to jail and on probation after robbing the grocery store he works at, and Major, his bully and leader of the gang, is responsible on putting James on drug addiction. There, he learns that there is more than just fighting and becoming the contender. At first, Alfred was pictured as irresponsible and a high school drop out because he thought he “… had no reason to stay” (23). But at the end, Alfred got back on his feet and started to be more responsible and also continued school, and strived to be a great boxer. Like Alfred, I was, and still am irresponsible. Like not turning in school work on time, and not doing chores around the house when needed to, but when I started playing sports, I regained responsibility and started to get my head back on track. Mr. Donatelli draws an important distinction between being a champion and being a contender. While the odds of one being a champion are slim, he knows that anyone can be a contender. Being a contender is not about raw talent or the kind of innate skill that few possess—being a contender, as Mr. Donatelli says, is about blood, sweat, and tears. It is purely a measure of how hard someone works. The reason this is so important to Alfred is because he has never worked for something so hard; he does not even know if he can do it. The plot of The Contender is simple, straightforward, and chronological as it tells of Alfred’s coming of age. It follows the classic pattern of plot development.
The contender by Robert Lipsyte is an exciting novel with each chapter having something new to learn about the book. Lipsyte does a good job describing the characters and showing their emotional and physical feelings. The protagonist of the novel is a black seventeen-year-old man named Alfred Brooks, a high school dropout living with Aunt Pearl and her 3 daughters in Harlem, New York City. He begins to train at a boxing club in the streets because he has a lot of issues, including his friend James, who is sent to jail and on probation after robbing the grocery store he works at, and Major, his bully and leader of the gang, is responsible on putting James on drug addiction. There, he learns that there is more than just fighting and becoming the contender. At first, Alfred was pictured as irresponsible and a high school drop out because he thought he “… had no reason to stay” (23). But at the end, Alfred got back on his feet and started to be more responsible and also continued school, and strived to be a great boxer. Like Alfred, I was, and still am irresponsible. Like not turning in school work on time, and not doing chores around the house when needed to, but when I started playing sports, I regained responsibility and started to get my head back on track. Mr. Donatelli draws an important distinction between being a champion and being a contender. While the odds of one being a champion are slim, he knows that anyone can be a contender. Being a contender is not about raw talent or the kind of innate skill that few possess—being a contender, as Mr. Donatelli says, is about blood, sweat, and tears. It is purely a measure of how hard someone works. The reason this is so important to Alfred is because he has never worked for something so hard; he does not even know if he can do it. The plot of The Contender is simple, straightforward, and chronological as it tells of Alfred’s coming of age. It follows the classic pattern of plot development.