How Much Can You Take?

Authors Note: This writing piece is about the theme of a story and why the actions he took match the theme i gave it.

Getting hit and hitting back is part of life. In the book, The Berlin Boxing Club, Karl learns that the hard way.  Growing up in the 1930’s was not an easy thing for Jews and their lives were run by Nazi’s. Regardless of what happened to Karl and his family, they never gave up and knew they had to do something to fix their current situation. They didn’t know what they were going to do but one thing they weren’t going to do is sit there and do nothing.  The most important theme in this book is determination and it shows throughout the book.

The first reason the main theme is determination is because even though he was always scrawny and easily beat at anything and everything, he never gave up. He was always reaching for that goal of becoming a pro boxer and being the representative for all the Jews out there. He got beat once in the ring  and usually, fighters tend to lose all motivation and give up after a loss, but not Karl. He took that as a lesson and learned from his mistakes, got right back in the gym and did what he had to do to conquer. Boxing is a lot like life. Everybody gets knocked down, we just have to learn to get back up.

Following the theme of determination, he never gave up the fate that one day, all Jews and Germans would be equal and would all be in fair line. At that time in his life, Hitler was reigning with power and it only got worse for him and his Jewish family. His father always told him “ This is not forever Karl, this is just temporary.” And Karl always kept that in his head.  This story line is not just in this book because determination can fit in anywhere such as movies and real life situations which leads me to my next Paragraph.

This book really connects to the Movie, Rocky 6 because Rocky was already old and he was stepping up to the plate and going to the gym dedicating to give the people a good fight against a new fresh fighter and to show he still had it in him.  Although people laughed and said he could never do it, it went in one of his ears and out the other. A great quote by Rocky in this movie is “ It’s not about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keeping moving forward. How much can you take an keep moving forward!”  Like Karl, Rocky showed sheer determination in and outside of the ring even after they were told they couldn’t.

We must learn to endure the pain to be able to bounce back stronger next time. If people didn’t have determination, nobody would accomplish half the goals they set for themselves. A lot of athletes have a lot of determination which gives us motivation to go and do what we want to do. Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. always says  “You must dedicate yourself to your craft and you will be successful beyond belief” .