“Now, as Joe stood and watched their home burn to the ground, he had that same feeling he’d experienced in his aunt’s dark attic years before. The same coldness, fear, and insecurity. Home, it was beginning to seem to him, was something you couldn’t necessarily count on.”

Brown uses this moment to illustrate a recurring theme in Joe’s early life: the instability of home and family. The parallel drawn between Joe’s current experience and his earlier trauma when he was recovering from illness in his aunt’s attic emphasizes the cyclical nature of loss in Joe’s childhood. The author employs sensory language, such as “coldness” and “fear,” to convey the emotional impact of these events on young Joe. The final sentence serves as a pivotal realization for Joe, encapsulating his growing understanding of life’s unpredictability. By personifying the concept of home as something that can’t be “counted on,” Brown communicates Joe’s developing worldview. This moment marks a significant turning point in Joe’s character development, laying the groundwork for his future resilience and independence, traits which are explored further in the book through the theme of Self-Reliance Versus Trusting Others.

“And in those few months some essential questions would be answered. Would the farm boys be able to keep up with the intellectual side of the sport? Would the city boys have the toughness to survive?”

Brown uses rhetorical questions to highlight the contrasting backgrounds of the rowing team candidates and the multifaceted nature of the sport. This quote emphasizes a central theme of the book: the merging of diverse experiences and skills to create a cohesive team. Brown underscores the idea that rowing requires both mental acuity and physical resilience. By framing these as “essential questions,” Brown builds tension and sets up a