The Boys in the Boat

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2013

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 2

Part 1, Chapters 3-5

Part 2, Chapters 6-8

Part 3, Chapters 9-10

Part 3, Chapters 11-12

Part 4, Chapters 13-15

Part 4, Chapters 16-18

Part 4, Chapter 19-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

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Part 3, Chapters 9-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “The Parts That Really Matter”

Chapter 9 Summary

In January, Ulbrickson makes an announcement to all the members of the rowing team. The boys will be put into set crews and race against one another. The crews will change periodically until Ulbrickson finds the perfect combination to race for the Olympics in Berlin. It is up to each boy “whether he would be there or not” (150). An “all-out war” began in the shell house, with the boys pitted against one another. Roger and another future Olympian, Shorty Hunt, are placed in a boat with Joe. The other future Olympians—Don Hume, Johnny White, Stub McMillin, Chuck Day, and coxswain Bobby Moch—are in different boats.

During a rare sunny Seattle day, Joe takes Joyce for a canoe ride on Lake Washington. The next day he visits his father at work. They chat, and Joe asks if he can see his half-siblings. Harry refuses but notes that he and Thula sometimes go out of town, implying Joe could see them then.

In early April, the boys travel to Oakland for the Pacific Coast Regatta, where they will race against Cal and others. Ulbrickson decides that the sophomore boat, Joe’s boat, will race as the varsity team, “despite their repeated defeats” (165) against the other Washington boats. The demoted JV boat beats Cal, “unleashing months’ worth of frustration” (167). The varsity race is neck-and-neck, but Washington is eventually declared the winner by six feet. The boys celebrate.

Chapter 10 Summary

The boys prepare for the Poughkeepsie Regatta in June. Ulbrickson announces that the sophomores will not necessarily retain their varsity status; they must earn it. Joe and the other sophomores are disappointed and row very poorly for the next few weeks. Ulbrickson threatens to break up their combination, though he “hated to even say it” (177). In May, he tests all the boats again, and the older boys win “by a length” (180). Local sportswriters note that the older boys tire more easily than the sophomores, and that the race in Poughkeepsie is a long one, four miles.

The team travels to Poughkeepsie, where the weather is rainy with “a cold, stiff wind […] whipping downstream” (182). Ulbrickson wonders whether Cal threw the race in Oakland, hoping to lull Washington into complacency. After a head-to-head between the older and younger boys, Ulbrickson officially demotes the sophomores to JV. The next day, after holding another trial, the freshman and JV boats beat the older varsity boys, baffling Ulbrickson. On the day of the race, the freshman boat easily demolishes the competition. During the JV race, Joe and his teammates get off to a poor start, but then “determination conquered despair” (187), and the JV team sails to victory. The varsity team, on the other hand, loses to Cal by an inch. Ulbrickson worries about his job security.

Part 3, Chapters 9-10 Analysis

Though Joe doubts his place at Washington at the beginning of the novel, by the end of this section, he feels a kinship with his teammates and a sense of pride in and loyalty to his school. The idea of found family, particularly that born from teamwork, recurs in this section, as Joe’s sense of belonging grows. Joe once believed that he could not trust the concept of home: Home could easily be taken from him, and therefore it had no value. As he comes to know his teammates better, he sees the shell house as “the one place he had started to feel more or less at home” (155), which supports The Value of Teamwork and Human Connection: Presence and Absence.

One notable element of this section is the introduction of the Dust Bowl, the natural disaster that displaced so many Americans. Joe sees the horrible effects of this disaster as he travels by train from Poughkeepsie to Seattle. Brown writes, “For months, things had been looking up in America […] But the winds of April 14 suddenly blew away the slowly accumulating hopes of millions” (175). This sudden disaster following a period of hope mirrors the tumultuous nature of Joe’s rowing career. As soon as Joe believes he has found his place, disaster strikes. He is demoted down a boat, Ulbrickson criticizes his rowing, or his father rejects him once again. Just as the US is thrown into an endless cycle of highs and lows, so too does Joe ride a rollercoaster of emotions, never quite knowing when his good fortune will turn to dust.