Summary Of The Contender By Robert Lipsyte

As Vance Havner once said, “The vision must be followed by the venture”. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.” This quote represents the fact that upstairs can be used to symbolize opportunity, hence downstairs can be used to embody disadvantage. In The Contender by Robert Lipsyte, Alfred is the protagonist. He is a teenage boy who lives in Harlem, New York. Alfred’s life has been pretty tough up until now. Both of his parents died and his best friend has died of drug addiction. Alfred thinks he’s useless, as he is constantly bullied by the antagonist, Major, and his goons. However, when he goes up the stairs to Donatelli’s gym, life changes for him. Robert Lipsyte utilizes stairs to portray Alfred’s ups and downs throughout The

This hint is undoubtedly correct, as the clubroom contains drugs and alcohol. This indicates that the concept of downstairs is used to display mishaps. All of this proves even further that stairs are a key symbol in The Contender. Another piece of evidence supporting this statement is that before Alfred went to Coney Island, “[He] let Hollis lead him downstairs. On the street, Major waved him into the red-leather front seat of the white Cadillac convertible.” (Lipsyte 119) Hollis leading Alfred specifically downstairs makes it blatantly obvious that there will eventually be some misfortune on this trip to Coney Island. The car that Major waved Alfred into is stolen, and Alfred runs away when he finds out that it is. This confirms that downstairs is used to model bad things in the novel. All in all, negativity and setbacks are symbolized by the concept of going downstairs in The Contender. In this novel, stairs symbolize Alfred’s success through the storyline, in addition to his struggles and negative things he encounters on his