Character Analysis: The Boys In The Boat

Alan Hopgood’s “And the Big Men Fly” is a written comedic play about a country farmer named Achilles Jones, who is recruited to play for the West Melbourne Football Club. His character’s development allows Achilles to be a key player for the football team, though he never has any passion for the VFL. In the novel, Achilles has represented Australian stereotypes of a typical country person almost exactly through never traveling far from his farm and by always appearing dumb and uneducated. In addition to the stereotypes, his character only tends to enjoy the simple aspects of life.

When he was little his mom died, and his dad remarried to a woman named Thula. Thula did not like joe and she kicked him out when he was only ten years old. “She declared that she would not live under the same roof as joe, that Harry must choose between him and her. She said Joe would have to move out if she were to stay in a godforsaken place. Joe was only ten years old” (Brown 86,87). I never could understand how someone could kick a child out of the house and force them to live on their own when they are ten years old. As Joe grew up the more he needed his family, but his family was not there for him, at least not his biological family. When Joe made the rowing team that's the day that he got a new family, even if he did not know it at the time. So was Joyce, a beautiful girl who loved joe and they were going to get married and start a family of their own. “When joe stopped playing they talked about what it would be like when they were married and had a hoe and maybe kids” (Brown 102). Making the rowing team and meeting and falling in love with Joyce might have been the best thing that has ever happened to Joe. As soon as everything start going good for Joe, Thula gets an infection and dies. Not that it was a good thing that she died, it was very sad, but it brought Joe and his dad back together again. Harry wanted Joe to move back home with him and the kids. “I’m going to build a house where we can all live

When Joe became self-reliant he knew what he had to do, which make enough money for school each year. He even met back up with his dad to help him build the new house. After Thula passed away; Joe was welcomed back into the home, where Joyce and Joe would “play house”. Harry, Joyce and the kids would cheer Washington’s team when they raced.

had with his dad about Shoeless Joe himself. At the end of the book, they go back to that memory,

Though all the members of the team are important characters, Joe Rantz is undoubtedly the novel’s protagonist. Trace Joe’s character development from his childhood to his gold- medal finish in Berlin. How does Joe grow as a character? What does he learn about himself and the world, and in what ways does he change?

Does the truth always set you free? On the Waterfront is a film that touches on the complexity of this question while exposing power, corruption, and its consequences. The main character, Terry Malloy deals with a personal battle between his morality and what is safest to do. Malloy struggles in finding his own identity that isn't connected to the mob. He struggles with the insecurity of having an identity and what that details. Throughout the film, Malloy startes to uncover his identity and the values in which he believes in.

In the short story, “The Boat” by Alistair Macleod, symbolism is used to represent an abstract idea. The boat, being a major symbol of the story was the way of life for the family. As the story goes on, the boat starts to make the family feel confined giving them a choice to leave or stay with the boat. There were symbols that impacted the story that had connection towards the boat. Chain bracelets, the father’s clothes, the books that the father read are all symbols that tied to the boat. The father's chain bracelets and clothes represent the father feeling trapped as a fisherman since he never changes out of them. We find out more about the characters and their personal connection with the boat and the other symbols and what it means to them. The family starts to fall apart due to the kids learning about the father’s books leading to them moving away from home. Symbolism is used when one thing is meant to represent something else adding meaning and emotion to the story which is well represented throughout the story.

For this Case Study I chose fictional character Will Hunting from the award winning movie Good Will Hunting. Will Hunting was born in a poor region of south Boston, Massachusetts, an orphan, who lived with a very abusive alcoholic foster dad. As a kid, Will was subdued to frequent physical abuse by his foster dad, between getting beat with a wrench, and having cigarettes put out on him, Will dealt with a lot at a young age (James A. Frieden).

Lord of the Flies is a novel written in 1954 by William Golding. A plane carrying a group of British citizens trying to escape the nuclear war gets shot down and lands on a deserted tropical island. The only survivors are children ranging from the age of six to twelve-year-olds. The younger children are nick named “littluns” and the older children are nick named “biguns”. At first, they celebrate their freedom from the war but then they begin to realize there aren't any adults to supervise them, they don't have food, they don't have shelter, and they are stranded on a deserted tropical island. One of the characters Piggy is classified as smart but is fat chubby and has asthma so he isn't capable of much things. “ “My auntie told me not to

First, Janie, the main character, starts off living and being taken care of her grandmother, Nanny. She later grows up to become married, but their relationship is not genuine because her grandmother wanted her to marry the man. Janie meets a man called Joe Starks and they run off to a town called Eatonville where Joe becomes Mayor and blinded by his power. He becomes violent and domestically abuses Janie. Joe would be manipulative and isolate her from the rest of the town because she was "high-class." They live on to become older, and he eventually dies due to a sickness he needed to have checked two years earlier, but it was too late.

So Joe’s life in exile began. Although Joe was able to care for himself, his life had become sad, narrow, and lonely. On a stormy day in November of 1924 Joe’s life yet again changed. Thula had gone into labor with their third child but it took all night for them to get to the doctor so that she could deliver their first girl, Rose. That was Thula’s last straw.. A few weeks later they packed up once again, picked up Joe from the school house and went live in Thula’s parent’s basement in Alki Point, Seattle. By 1925 Harry bought an auto repair and tire shop in Sequim, Washington. He was enrolled at the school in Sequim which he attended everyday, this is where he met his childhood sweetheart and the woman that he would eventually marry, Joyce Simdars. One day when Joe was coming back from school he saw his family in their black car as if they were never coming back. Harry told Joe that they were leaving and that since Joe was all grown up he was going to stay in Sequim, alone. So yet again Joe was abandoned in a half finished house with no money and no one to help him. Soon after, he got a job working for one of his neighbors to help cut wood. In the summer of 1923, Joe got a letter from his brother Fred who was now living in Seattle asking Joe to come live with them. So Joe left Sequim and went to live with his brother in Seattle. While attending the Roosevelt High School, Joe joined the gymnastic team.

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.

1. Compare and contrast how, and for what dramatic purpose, the writers of The History Boys and Oleanna present characters who display both vulnerability and villainy.

A sequence of events leads up to Joe becoming almost completely isolated from the outside world. During his time in the isolated continent, Joe becomes addicted to narcotics; he escapes his pain and anguish by succumbing to detached and paralyzed state of mind. Throughout his journey in this secluded continent, he is faced with his hatred of the Germans and his desire to enact vengeance upon them for all that he has lost. When he meets a German geologist exploring the frozen tundra, he inadvertently kills him. Joe experiences ironic feelings of remorse after so many years spent obsessing over the destruction of the Germans. There was no gratification or fulfillment, for Joe, in the German man’s death. Joe felt repulsed and an abhorrence in himself for his

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.