Life comes at you with tons of force and without people, you are probably going to fall, but with others, you can stand. Looking into The Boys in the Boat we find out how in order for the boys to stand firm with one another, they first have to give themselves up to each other. The Boys in the Boat is a book about a bunch of farm boys that find out how to rely on each other as they row smoothly through the years.  The theme of The Boys in the Boat by: Daniel James Brown, a story that displays how nine marvelous young men were led to success, is that relying on each other through hard work, grit, and passion brings victory, which first emerges as the First freshman boat comes to victory against California, and is shaped by the wins and losses of the seasons, and refined by the respect and sync of the “boys''.

The grit and passion starts to form and emerge early on in the story, as the freshmen are finding their “swing” as they battle against the Californian boys. Their hard work starts to pay off as they slay the Californians. Symbol: “...The Washington boys stepped it up to thirty-two and then all the way to thirty-six, just because they knew they could.” (Brown 99). The grit and passion is paying off as their fellow Washatonions congratulate them:.  “Shrill horns and cheers resounded all along the shores of Lake Washington.” (Brown 99).  The boys' being rewarded for their hard work, grit, and passion is emerging as they are applauded along the shores.

The theme is shaped as the boys start to train after the big win. start to lose motivation after their wins, and the boys fall into a slump. After their victories they become lazy and their rowing starts to deplete. “...Day after day they turned in discouraging times. Since beating California, they appeared to have lost all focus” (Brown #106).  After their victory, they seem to have no desire to push hard and fall into a rut. Parini and Moore from the Guardian talk about the fundamental challenges of rowing.  "is that when any one member of a crew goes into a slump the entire crew goes with him. (Parini and Moore)  The sport of rowing requires pure dedication to the team to succeed. As the boys are learning how to push through their struggles, they are being shaped for the end success. Learning that if one person falls everybody falls with him.  On the other hand, if everybody succeeds it turns into one glorious motion.

Finally, it is refined as Joe is put in the lead varsity boat. The shell is finally ready to dominate with Joe in the number seven seat. “...Joe rowed that day as he had never been able to row before” (Brown 240).  This is the type of harmonious rowing that lead them to crush the Cali’s.  “...they crushed the two-time Olympic champions at the University of California.” (“Rowing - Summer Olympics - Berlin 1936 Final”).  This is the type of rowing that will lead them to Berlin to beat the Germans and Italians. The respect and sync of the boys is finally here.

Throughout the book, the boys learned that working hard, along with a little bit of grit and passion brings victory. This emerged as the boy's hard work paid off when they beat the Cali’s for the first time as freshmen.  It was shaped by the downs and ups of the season as they pushed on. And refined by the respect the boys gained for each other throughout the years.  The Boys had to individually find that they had to rely on each other for support. After they gave themselves up to each other they found that smooth miraculous “swing” of rowing. Throughout the story of these marvelous young men, we saw that they were thrown into life's violent storms.  As these storms came through, without the help they would have fallen, but they learned to rely on their teammates and to hold each other up through the storms.

Works Cited

Brown, Daniel James. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Penguin Books, 2014.

Parini, Jay, and Alan Moore. “The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown – review.” The Guardian, 13 July 2013, theguardian.com/books/2013/jul/13/boys-boat-daniel-james-brown-review. Accessed 14 October 2022.

“Rowing - Summer Olympics - Berlin 1936 Final.” YouTube, 28 March 2020, youtube.com/watch?v=JYWCNPq3-Vg.%20Accessed%205%20October%202022. Accessed 14 October 2022.