Overcoming Adversity In Tim Howard's 'The Keeper'

The recommended by the library, autobiographical book, The Keeper, written by Tim Howard captures the incredible story of current United States Men’s National Team goalie and his rise to stardom. This book shows the determination and fearlessness Tim Howard resembled throughout his soccer career from a young age to now. He overcame tons of adversity, including suffering from Tourette Syndrome (TS), growing up in a rough part of downtown New Jersey, and dealing with divorced parents. The setting of this book follows Tim Howard on his soccer journey. The setting starts in New Jersey where he grew up and began his soccer career all the way up to playing for the New Jersey MLS team, then to the United Kingdom where he played for club teams, such as Manchester United and Everton. The setting ends at the 2014 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he played his best match of his career. The main conflicts of the story are person versus self and society. Tim struggles with person versus self conflict because all his life he has struggled coping with Tourette Syndrome. This disability created learning a serious struggle for him as a child and made him perform strange twitches and behaviors as a result of TS. Luckily, he has learned how to control his disability

One of which is, “The human spirit can overcome adversity” that relates to the fact that Tim Howard overcame multiple childhood adversities to become the man he is today. He got out his rough home situation in New Jersey and overcame Tourette’s Syndrome. Another theme commonly observed in this book is “Never give up” which has to do with Tim Howard always working toward his goals and not stopping until he reached them. He had some smaller goals and some much larger goals, such as to participate in a World Cup. The purpose of Tim Howard writing this book was to inspire others and to talk about the path that was taken to become