Content Warning: The source material contains depictions of poverty and the abandonment of a child.

In the Prologue, Joe is dying, and he imparts to Brown that any book written about the Berlin Olympics must not be about an individual rower but about “the boat” (3). This idea of a collective rather than an individual story sets up the book’s most prominent theme: teamwork.

Joe first appears as a fiercely independent young man who is scarred by childhood abandonment and determined to make things work on his own, without help. He insists, “I’ve just gotta take care of it myself” (59) to Joyce after she criticizes his father’s parenting. He resolves to “never again let himself depend on […] anyone else” (59). However, this self-sufficient, sometimes self-serving attitude is antithetical to rowing. As Brown points out, rowing is a sport in which every member of the team must row perfectly as an individual while being “perfectly synchronized with the movements of all the [other rowers]” (89). Teamwork is vital, yet when a team fails, it often “comes down to a lack of concentration on one person’s part” (89).

During his freshman year, Joe struggles to become a member of the team. He feels isolated from his teammates because of his extreme poverty and resists becoming close to any of them.