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Transcript

The Contender

Summary:

The Contender is about a boy named Alfred who is bullied a lot at schol and can't fit in with anyone. He drops out of school because he can't figure out how to fit in. After his only friend James ditches him to go do drugs, he decides to start boxing to try to learn how to defend himself.

Through boxing he gains confidence and learns how to defend himself against bullies. After winning his first 2 fights, and losing his third, he decides to retire from boxing because he doesn't think he is right for the sport, and he thinks he got enough confidence from it to go back to school and learn how to fit in.

After retiring from boxing, he goes home and his aunt tells him his friend James broke into a house to steal money to get drugs and the police were looking for him. He goes and finds James and convinces him to go into a rehab center to get off drugs. The book ends with James going to rehab and Alfred learning how to fit in with different groups of people.

Themes:

The biggest themes of The Contender were learning how to fit in, and not quitting because Alfred can't figure out how to fit in with the people at his school, but through boxing, he learns how to fit in with different groups of people. Not quitting was the other theme because Alfred was close to quitting boxing many times but didn't, and learned that not quitting is the best way to become a good boxer, and to gain self confidence.

Character Development:

The main character in this book was Alfred. He was a kid who got bullied a lot, and got beat up.

Alfred decides to start boxing to build up his confidence. Through boxing he builds up his confidence enough so he can make new friends and stand up to bullies. Boxing teaches him dicipline, respect, self control, and it gives him a lot of confidence.

He wins 2 fights, then loses his third, but realizes how much boxing has improved his confidence, so he retires and uses his new confidence and maturity to help himself stand up to the bullies and to help James get clean.

"Knock your brains out, bust your back, run your feet down to the bone. What for? The Man said, nothing's promised you. We know that."

This quote shows how hard it is for Alfred to believe in the future and how hard it is for him to believe that he can change in a positive way, and if there is any real point in trying. When this was said in the book, Alfred was at his lowest point in the book. He was doing drugs with James, and was getting bullied all the time. He was sure nothing would change for the better, but then found boxing, and through working hard, he got out of trouble and made something of himself. He learned that if he believed in himself, tried hard enough, and worked hard enough, something good would eventually happen.

The End

Quotes:

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