Boxing In Joyce Carol Oates Fat City

“Boxing is not a metaphor for life but a unique, closed, self-referential world, obliquely akin to those severe religious in which the individual is both “free” and “determined” (Oates 13). This paraphrase by Joyce Carol Oates refer to the purpose of life as a boxer. It shows us that not only victory and lost signify the definition of boxing, but there are also other adversaries that boxers need to get through in order to set “free” and “determined”. The importance of this lies upon characters in Leonard Gardner’s Fat City, where each of them illustrate their personal adversaries and struggle through boxing. Billy Tully, a former boxer who was once ranked as one of the most prominent boxers in Stockton, confront his life struggle post boxing

Her statement shows us that the opponent is the belligerent who insurmountably wall the way to the boxer’s desire and needs. In relative to Gardner’s Fat City, the story of Arcadio Lucero proves to us that sometimes you fight for something else, not only just for the passion of boxing. Arcardio is an epitome of hard-working individual who hustle themselves out of their struggling life. In order for him to set free from being migrant labor, he has to fight. He does not even care who he is fighting with when he quotes “Of Billy Tilly, he knew nothing. He went there was work, and who his opponents were no longer made any difference” (Gardner 143). Furthermore, Arcardio set an example of a boxer who is persistent and consistently prepared to do everything in order to overcome his “dream-distortion of himself” (Oates 12) by conditioning “himself, his health and his hands.” (Gardner 143). However, Oates also compare a boxing match to “tragedy, an event that necessarily subsumes both boxers, as any ceremony subsumes its participants.” (Oates 12). For Lucero himself, he lost his mom since he was young and this tragic event encourage him to fight in order reach the desire of love and comfort that lacked. The passion of boxing from Lucero is not only because of his love of the sports, but also his intention to eliminate tragedy that became the scar on his heart. That scar eventually turns into the hunger to reach his desire that block him from achieving it. The struggle, therefore, can be seen as “invisible” (Oates 13) because us as spectators, are unable to witness Lucero’s personal adversary or motivation that influence him to become a