The Boys in the
Boat
Daniel Tarlowski, Robin Weber, Michael
Rinella, Abby Ras
Theme: Even if
you’re let down,
don’t give up.
Summary
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Joe was abandoned multiple times by his family when he was young
He went to the University Washington where he joined the crew
As a team, the crew made many accomplishments and never lost a race together
At the championship regatta Washington beat their rivals and qualified for the
Olympics
• At the Olympics Washington made an amazing comeback despite challenges, to
win gold
Joes perspective of people
Since Joe was abandoned by his family, he viewed
people differently because most of his life he was
alone. He didn’t trust anyone because of what his
family did to him.
He thought that everything was a one-man job, but it
all changed when he joined the rowing crew. Rowing
requires a connection with one another, and a lot of
dependance to your crew.
It was a challenge to learn how to trust and rely on his
team because Joe was so used to being alone .
How A Better Outlook Shaped Joe’s Life
Joe Worked Hard After
Being Abandoned,
making a living for
himself.
He Had a very positive
work ethic
He was doing very well
in school, and even
went to his cousins'
school for a year.
If his work ethic was worse, or if he just
kept thinking of when he was
abandoned, Joe would’ve never been
able to row, let alone have a job, or do
well in school.
Having this positive outlook on
life formed Joe’s life
exponentially.
Key quotation
“It takes energy to get angry. It eats you up inside. I
can’t waste my energy like that and expect to get
ahead. When they left, it took everything I had in me
just to survive. Now I must stay focused. I’ve just got
to take care of things myself.”
• Joe doesn’t worry about the
things that happened in the
past.
• focuses on what’s important in
the moment.
This is the reason Joe got on the
rowing team, his positive outlook
and his ignorance towards hate is
crucial.
Connections
Cool Runnings
• didn’t give up when faced
with challenges
• started from scratch in a
field that included
professionals
• went on to win a gold
medal at the Olympics
Washing crew
Jamaican Bobsled team
Because of the challenged they faced, both teams
persisted and worked harder to achieve their goal,
resulting in their amazing success.
Robin: The Boys in the
Boat was a story about
perseverance and not
giving up when you are
faced with challenges.
When you are
determined, willing to
put in the work, and
willing to learn and
change- amazing things
can happen. I thought
the book was hard to
follow because there
were many people and
it was boring at times.
It was kind of
interesting when they
were racing because we
didn’t know what was
going to happen.
Michael: The boy in the
boat was a story about
to always move on even
if it looked impossible. I
thought it was fine there
was some surprising
parts in the book but
half of the time It was
boring, and I just wanted
to finish the chapter as
fast as I could. I thought
the book was ok but very
boring.
Robin and Michael's
final thoughts
Abby and Daniel's Final
Thoughts
Abby: The Boys in the boat was a story
of trust, and a team learning to put
all they have into each other. When
they had hard challenges, they never
gave up. Overall, the book wasn’t as
bad as I thought it would be. There
were a lot of boring parts, and I was
not engaged in this book.
Daniel: The theme was about how
to never give up, and how you
should never give up in real life.
Although this shows a theme that
can be incorporated in real life. It
was very boring.