Who Is Joe Rantz In Daniel James Brown's The Boys In The Boat

“The path Joe Rantz followed across the quad and down to the shell house that afternoon in 1933 was only the last few hundred yards of a much longer, harder, and at times darker path he had traveled for much of his young life” explains Daniel James Brown in his novel, The Boys in the Boat (Brown 31). The reader follows Joe through his early trials, errors, successes, and failures, all of which molded him into a persevering character. Through disappointments and abandonment, Brown’s The Boys in the Boat illustrates Joe Rantz, son of mechanical pioneer Harry Rantz, as a cunning, intelligent, and hardworking individual determined to succeed in his endeavors. Although Harry Rantz, Joe’s father, began adulthood with a “most satisfactory life —

His stepmother, Thula LaFollette, openly exhibits her favoritism towards her own children. An example of such mistreatment towards Joe is depicted when “[Harry and Thula’s second child] Mike followed [Joe]…happily plucking half-grown carrots out of the ground” (Brown 45). Joe’s garden, “a kind of sanctuary for him, a place where he…was in charge” comforted him and gave him a place where he could be alone with his thoughts (Brown 45). Mike’s act of pulling the carrots represents a disturbance in the serenity. Understandably, because of his survivalist attitude, Joe becomes aggravated with Mike, yelling at him and causing him to cry out. However, Thula’s decision to punish not Mike but Joe allows to reader to visualize the extent of her hatred towards Joe. Another example that portrays Thula’s hate towards Joe and how Joe persevered through his loss was when Joe was a mere ten years old. Joe’s father, swayed by Thula’s sharp tongue towards Joe, “told his son that he would have to move out of the house” (Brown 46). Despite the difficulties Joe faced, he had not yet lost hope and continued to work, learn, and sleep as best he could, which portrays his determined and optimistic