The Contender By Robert Lipsyte Analysis

Everyone wants to be a champion here is how Alfred became one. In the book The Contender, written by Robert Lipsyte, Alfred Jones trains hard, fights hard, and wins hard with the help of Donatelli and his friends but must also face the challenges of making the right decisions while he lives in a bad place with people like major trying to pressure him to do bad things. The theme of this story is; to get to the top; you must have discipline, never quit, and stay away from bad decisions in life.

In the story, “The Fighter” by Walter Dean Myers, the main conflict of the story is that Billy, the main character, needs to earn more money for him and his family in order for them to live a nice life. Billy is running low on money, so he needs to do boxing which is the only way he earns money, but his wife does not agree with him because she doesn’t want him to get hurt. Therefore, he is torn between either upsetting his wife to earn money or living in poverty until he could get the right education to get a good job. In the beginning of the story it says Billy is going out, though it doesn’t say where, it is to somewhere his wife does not want him to go. I know this because on page 27 it states,“Billy Giles told his wife that he was just

Author Gary Soto describes his experience with a day-old green guacamole jacket in “The Jacket.” In this autobiographical incident, his family is poor and his mom is forced to get him a ugly green jacket. Although Gary had gotten a jacket, he is disgusted by its color. However, he is forced to wear it because it is extremely cold. This is similar to how I am forced to wear a particular shirt and short or pant called uniform at school. The material is constantly itching my skin. Gary Soto’s jacket is similar to how I am required to wear uniform, but it contains some distinct differences.

Most people make mistakes, they may accidentally do it. When people do this it is more likely that they didn’t think before they actually did it. In the story, “The Fight,” by Adam Bagdasarian, the protagonist, a popular boy that got in a fight, named Adam learns to think before he acts. Which could hurt not only him, but other people too.

When one is on the other side of the earth, there is only so much information that a person could obtain. This was a great enough reason for the author, Greg Campbell, of "Blood Diamonds" to expose what all eyes are not seeing and what many are blind to in this world. Campbell went out to research the tracks and origins of a very valuable stone known as the diamond. In doing so, he urges to research the origins and life of this precious rock. He goes about researching just exactly how the life of the diamond begins in the jungles of Sierra Leone and ends up in the London on its market. This is what could be said to be the ultimate reason for this book "Blood Diamond”. Evidently, Campbell wanted to expose or let it be known how African

Gwendolyn Brooks' "First fight. Then Fiddle." initially seems to argue for the necessity of brutal war in order to create a space for the pursuit of beautiful art. The poem is more complex, however, because it also implies both that war cannot protect art and that art should not justify war. Yet if Brooks seems, paradoxically, to argue against art within a work of art, she does so in order create an artwork that by its very recognition of art's costs would justify itself.

Philip Malloy has been suspended from his school for singing the national anthem. Although this story does not sound scrupulous, we don’t know the undivided story, for example students are not allowed to sing during the national anthem “The students are supposed to stand in silence”. (Pg. 44) This is what one of the teachers said at the school Philip goes to, “‘Respect, silence, and attention,’ I think the rules read” (Pg. 44)This was also said by a teacher at the school who was quoting the school handbook. How this proves my thesis is this shows that you are not allowed to sing during the national anthem so Philip was wrong.

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” -Stephen King. Descriptive language helps to create a picture in the reader’s mind. Authors can create descriptive language through narration or dialogue. In the novel The Contender, by Robert Lipsyte, the author uses descriptive language and dialogue to develop the characters and the setting.

In the novel, The Contender by Robert Lipsyte, Alfred Brooks is training to be a Contender and will learn a very important lesson in his life that is necessarily just about boxing. At one point in the novel, Alfred is training hard to be a contender. Alfred learns that in order to be a Contender he must put in the hard

“If the Reverend hadn’t take the situation in hand and preached one of the hottest sermons in hand and preached one of the hottest sermons on the relationship of the fruits of the Earth to plain, downright human foolishness, I don’t know where it would have all ended” (Fast 68). The novel April Morning is a book of historical fiction written by Howard Fast. The book depicts the historic battle of Lexington in the Revolutionary War. The theme of April’s Morning is about a fifteen-year-old boy named Adam Cooper who is trying to prove to his father that he is a man. As the small village of Lexington prepares to battle the British Red Coats, the village relies heavily on the Reverend. The Reverend is a flat character because his stance as a leader does not change. He is also a static character because he does not change in character no matter what happens. Although throughout the book the Reverend’s true name is never revealed, he has many other character traits are shown in

Redeployment, a national book award winner by author Phil Klay is a powerful, informative book about the Iraq war. It is composed of twelve incredible stories. The most memorable story for me is titled “Bodies.” The title got my attention emotionally and logically. Making sense of life, to readjust in the civilian world is the main theme of this story, which I believed it is a struggle to find direction to continue to live life and not just exist. Manipulation was another theme that made the process of connecting with people less stressful. However, it was not the most effective method.

“A redcoat soldier raised his musket, leveled it at Father, and fired” (Fast 100). April Morning is written by Howard Fast and takes place on April 17th, 1775 at the start of the revolutionary war in Lexington, Massachusetts. Moses Cooper is a major character and also the antagonist to Adam because he and Adam are always fighting and Moses doesn’t let Adam grow up. Although Moses was hard to understand, he was an affectionate, opinionated and respected man.

The game was at a tie, both teams were at 21 points. Luke, the quarterback, was being watched by scouts who were looking for the best players to play for them. It was the final quarter, Lukes team had the ball, and there was 30 seconds left on the game clock. The play started, Luke passes it to Joe, their best player for getting touchdowns. When Joe got the ball, he was off, no matter what the defence tried, their was no way they were going to catch him. Joe had scored the game winning touchdown, the crowd goes wild with excitement. After the game, all of Luke’s friends Joe, Bob, and Bruce, decided to go out to celebrate the game victory. Outside of the stadium, a scout came up to them, and talks to them about

The Newsboy exists as a documentation of newsboys in the 19th century, where young boys would have the often arduous job of selling papers every morning, in any weather conditions. This particular photograph depicts a young boy with a stack of newspapers, trying to stand his ground against what appears to be heavy snow and strong winds. Of all the jobs that children could have had during this era, being a newsboy was one of the better ones – laws and legislation with regards to children workers in harsher jobs in factories and mines were not passed until the 1870s and 1880s (The Canadian Encyclopedia). Despite the weather conditions of working in the winter in Quebec, this particular child was relatively lucky in that he has what appears to be a warm coat, and he is not working in a factory with poor conditions.

The author, Sean Gregory, in “The Perilous Fight,” talks about the political issue that has been going on for the past year, the issue started when a professional football player from the San Francisco 49ers team, also known as  Colin Kaepernick, kneeled down when the National anthem for the United States of America was played at the beginning of a game. Kaepernick’s justification for this, was that this was his way of protesting unfair treatment of individuals because of racial characteristics. Since racism, discrimination, and gender inequalities have been going on for centuries, I agree on the matter of sports players being able to  kneel down when the anthem, “Star spangled Banner,” is being played because these people are trying to stand up for what they believe is right, and they should be allowed to protest because it is serving as a peaceful way to protest for people who are being unjustly treated. Racism and discrimination often leads to these individuals who are suffering to be judged, killed, and many other harsh things that should not be taking place in the “land of the free.” We as Americans are given so many great things, and people think about the United States they usually think of  freedom, pursuit of happiness, and the rights of being a U.S. citizen, but how can we exercise those given rights properly, when t the government does not let us by putting limitations and restrictions on how we use our rights?  When it's