Boys in the Boat Essay

Summary of Chapter 2 of The Boys In the Boat The Boys In The Boat, written by Dan Brown and published in 2013, focuses on the rowing team who won the gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In particular, “Chapter 2” is about the childhood of Joe Rantz, one of the gold medalists of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Harry Rantz, father of Joe Rantz, was an amateur mechanic with a big dream. He married Nellie Rantz in 1899. After Fred, an elder brother of Joe, was born in 1899, they moved to Spokane, WA, in 1914, when Joe was born as their second son.

I had the pleasure of reading an outstanding, best seller book called, The Boys In The Boat Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown. This book is about the life of Joe Rantz, and the “boat.” Joe was born in Spokane. At the age of three his mother passed away. With the start of the Great Depression people had lost their jobs, homes, and had nowhere to go. He went though some hard obstacles including being left behind at the age of fifteen. Joe said “The whole thing was over in five minutes” (www.gritfire.com). Mr. Rantz also becomes self-reliant by finding his own way. He also learns how to rebuild trust with his father, and to others.

Daniel James Brown manages to awe and inspire readers in his book The Boys in the Boat, which describes the hardships a row crew from Washington underwent to make it to the 1936 Olympics. The story of the nine rowers on the Washington crew teaches lessons about inner confidence, trust, dedication, and the hope that can be found during even the most difficult times. I learned while reading that being the underdog doesn’t mean you’re destined to fail. Readers see that despite the hardships and many disadvantages the Washington crew faced, their dedication allowed them to beat the odds and inspire an entire nation.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown is a true story which illustrates the importance of grit and perseverance in the face of challenging situations. Throughout his troubled upbringing, Joe Rantz faces depressing and unfortunate events. When he was young, his mother dies, and his father remarries a harsh woman, Thula, who treats Joe dreadfully. His father can't hold a job, and his family keeps moving from town to town, which negatively impacts his social life. Eventually, Thula threatens to end the marriage with Joe’s father unless Joe leaves the family. Joe’s father accepts Thula’s request, and he abandons Joes when he is only fifteen years old. Yet in the midst of living independently at such a young age, Joe perseveres through the challenges and achieves his life’s dreams. When he is left with almost nothing, his drive to succeed ultimately leads to his triumph at rowing and to his winning of an Olympic gold medal in Berlin.

Many consider the Great Depression a tragedy but few actually know the ways in which it actually affected the people who lived through it. One way it affected the people of the time is the hopelessness it brought. During the early 1920's many men returned from the "Great War" jaded and angry. The same effect was seen in most people during the depression. It was this hopelessness that spawned modernist literature and thought. Another way the depression affected the everyday man was the loss of homes. Many homes were foreclosed during the depression and this left many homeless. In fact the "Okies" were people left homeless after farm foreclosures. The last way the depression affected people was the broken homes it caused. The number of father's leaving their families rose dramatically during

“It was not so much a matter of finding a job as of filling in with odd jobs whatever you could, and most “jobs” were those you made for yourself.” The Great depression was a time in the early 1930’s that closed many banks and left thousands of people out of business, which led to a depression to many. During the depression there wasn’t water, if it did rain it was very little and wasn’t enough to support the crops. Farmers weren’t able to grow many crops which lead to citizens not having a big enough food supply, however many kept trying to grow crops and didn’t give up. Not only did to many people get unemployed rising but also many people couldn’t find a new job.

In the book titled Race, Sports, and the American Dream, it discussed how sports helped change the place of African-American in society. “Sports was well segregated deep into the 20th century” (Smith 9). How college football looked in America in the 1950s was exactly how American society looked in the 1950s, segregated and racist. African-American athletes in college football helped fight and negate stereotypes because it showed that they are equally as good

After the Hoover years, however, a man portrayed as a father figure became some of the nation’s citizens’ only hope, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The middle-class, sometimes seen as hit the hardest by the Depression, pleaded with the Roosevelt administration for any help, but remained very proud in doing so. Many begged to remain anonymous. Also, like many other classes, the members of the middle-class didn’t want charity or handouts; they just wanted employment, or possibly a loan (pp. 53-4). No one took pride in having to write these letters. Many had to swallow their pride just to get pen to paper. “It is very humiliating for me to have to write to you” one Depression victim wrote (pp. 62). Middle-class citizens, like the rural citizens, wanted nothing less than the blacks to take their employment (pp. 94). The rural citizens also turned to the Roosevelt administration as a beacon of hope. The cherished the values of independence and hard work, so they asked only for employment or a loan (pp. 69). Their ideal solution to this economic terror was employment, as a result. They weren’t satisfied with the outcome of the relief though. They believed the relief was just creating ‘loafers’ out of the unemployed who choose not to work (pp. 125). They felt that Roosevelt should “give work to the needy ones, and not to the ones that have everything” (pp. 138). The rural citizens felt slightly forgotten, but not as forgotten as some

The 1920s seemed to promise a future of a new and wonderful way of life for America and its citizens . Modern science, evolving cultural norms, industrialization, and even jazz music heralded exciting opportunities and a future that only pointed up toward a better life. However, cracks in the facade started to show, and beginning with the stock market crash of 1929 the wealth of the country, and with it the hopes and expectations of its people, began to slip away. The Great Depression left a quarter of the population unemployed and much of the rest destitute and uncertain of what the future held. Wealth vanished, people took their money out of banks, and plans were put on hold. The most significant way in which the Great Depression affected Americans’ everyday lives was through poverty because it tore relationships apart and damaged the spirit of society while unexpectedly bringing families together in unity.

Energy is one of the single most important concepts to keep in mind when writing, it can make even the most insignificant occurrences interesting. Energy plays with the reader’s senses combining subject matter, leaps/ spacing and words into one to create a fascinating piece of work. “Good writers choose a topic they know a lot about—relationships, travel, growing up, bedrooms, hotels, restaurants, the synagogue on 42nd Street—and they trust that they will discover things about the topic as they work.” (Sellers 71) Rick Moody author of “Boys” has taken a relatable topic the process of growing up and has turned a thirty year frame into a condensed

Its no secret that college sports brings in the big bucks, and without the athletes preforming day in or day out universities would lack the funds to support a school needs. The college sports industry makes 11 billion in annual revenues (Mitchell, Horace, U.S. News Digital Weekly). 11 billion dollars made off of college sports alone is enough its self to pay these student-athletes for their contribution to a school’s success because without them there wouldn’t be this much income. They need these athletes and the NCAA should quit exploiting them for their talents and compensate them. Student-athletes are amateurs who choose to participate in intercollegiate athletics (Mitchell, Horace, U.S. News Digital Weekly). Indeed, they are amateur but in sports the word professional has a different meaning since in all sports there is a 1-2-year stint before an athlete can go from the college level to a professional standpoint. Meaning it only takes a year or two

When observing the social classes in the Boys in the Boat, it helps develop the theme topic of overcoming adversity, showing man’s desire to be like their counterparts. In the Boys in the Boat, Joe Rantz is the definition of the lower class. He was abandoned by his family because his mother couldn’t deal with the pressure of raising multiple kids. This makes Joe resort to the wild for his food, which is vastly different from his counterparts at the University of Washington. He constantly dealt with people on “the library lawn who had glanced appreciatively his way had had to overlook what was painfully obvious to him: that his clothes were not like most of the other students” (Brown 13). Joe was not supposed to make it to college, let alone

The book All American Boys, by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely takes place in the United States, although the state is left unspecified. The time period is also unconfirmed, but through assumption it can be estimated that it takes place in modern day time. Where it connects to American History isn’t exactly a specific section, but moreso just racial tension in general, linking the book to various parts of history. The main characters in All American Boys are Rashad and Quinn. Rashad is an African American boy who gets into an accident while at a convenience store, causing a police officer to assume that he was stealing. The policeman then proceeds to brutally beat Rashad, despite his compliance. Then there is Quinn, a white boy who, while

As discussed earlier, successful athletes are idolized in our society. Many are displayed as hardworking and perseverant individuals, which drove them to their success. Samantha Retrosi, a former U.S Olympic athlete, stated in an article how this ideology was engrained in her as a child, “I spent my childhood pursuing Olympic glory, which epitomizes the American dream of merit-based success” (2014). Furthermore, this idea goes beyond just athletes and sport. The idea that if we work hard we can make it in America is an underlying principle of our society. It is what drives many college students to work stay up late working on assignments and study. It is the reason many employees work long days. Additionally, neoliberalism supports the idea that through individual success we further the well being of society as a whole. Therefore, letting ourselves down is equally hard on our family, friends, and fellow Americans. Athletes are a great representation of those who succeeded personally and for the good of

The stock market crash of 1929 sent the nation spiraling into a state of economic paralysis that became known as the Great Depression. As industries shrank and businesses collapsed or cut back, up to 25% of Americans were left unemployed. At the same time, the financial crisis destroyed the life savings of countless Americans (Modern American Poetry). Food, housing and other consumable goods were in short supply for most people (Zinn 282). This widespread state of poverty had serious social repercussions for the country.