The Contender By Robert Lipsyte Analysis

Improved Essays
The Contender
Grit makes us push forward or crumble without it. People think that grit is just working hard, but it is not, It is mainly perseverance. In the novel The Contender by Robert Lipsyte, a young African American boy is struggling to find a passion in life despite the discrimination he faces during this time period. When Albert does find his passion, people are constantly trying to bring him down or stop him from succeeding. The main point of this essay is to prove how we choose to perceive grit can either help or hurt situations, that we cannot overcome certain issues with enough grit, and how our passions in life can affect grit. Grit is not always working hard to achieve our goal, it is learning from that mistake to grow from
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When Major tries to pull Alfred into the dark path of drugs and alcohol, he sees the mountain that Major is making him climb. The author portrays this by writing, “surprised at how far away his voice sounded”(5). This is important because since Major has a bad passion in life he is constantly trying to bring other people down to his level just like Alfred. In this quote Alfred sees how the people he surrounds himself can effect him. This explains that people with bad passions can bring down themselves and others. Although Alfred is actually going somewhere with boxing, Major still brought him down to his level. While at the party in the clubroom, Alfred sees Hollis giving a bag with white powder to a man, the author explains this by writing, “Hollis leaned back in the couch”(3). By saying this the author indicates that since Alfred has grit, he is steady but when Hollis leans back in the couch it is confirming that she is sinking or declining in her amount of grit. Hollis passion Isn’t only putting her but others at risk of getting caught or of getting sick. This paragraph mainly shows that with a bad passion the effects can hurt the person and the people around

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