Fighting To Make A Name

I think that Question 12 of the Socratic Seminar for The Power of One covers a very important topic.  Examples of this can be seen in modern society and I can even relate this back to my life through personal experiences.  This question asks about the many levels of the word "fighter" that are used within the novel.  I believe that Peekay is the character that portrays the different levels of this word the best.  It all begins when he is a young child in a boarding school and, being the youngest, is forced to do what all of the other students tell him to do.  Peekay has to fight with himself internally in order to control his true feelings towards all of the other students, such as Judge, because he knows that the consequences will be bad if he does not.  Once Peekay is no longer enrolled in that horrible boarding school, he meets a man named Hoppie Greenwald aboard a train.  Peekay immediately idolizes Hoppie, who proceeds to tell Peekay about his passion for boxing.  Instantly, Peekay found himself intrigued, and after their conversation ended he made it his life goal to become the Welterweight Champion of the world.  This is the point in the novel where Peekay sets a goal for himself that he will have to fight for.  After many years of being told he was worthless, he is making the decision to fight in order to make a name for himself in the world.   

Peekay’s fight to make a name for himself through boxing closely relates to an experience I have had with soccer.  When I first joined the Oxford Girls varsity soccer team as a freshman I had learned that they had not won a game in three years.  During my freshman year we did not win a single game and I became determined to win a game before graduating.  This is similar to Peekay in the sense that he also set a high goal for himself.  My team went two more years without winning a game however there were glimpses of good soccer throughout all of the rough games.  Finally it happened.   Just two weeks ago our team won our first game in six years.  We had fought for several years to get to this point, and we will forever be remembered as the team that broke the losing streak and turned Oxford Girls Soccer around.  This is similar to Peekay in that he did everything that would get him one step closer to becoming the Welterweight Champion of the world.  And even though we never learn whether he made it to his goal or not, I still find this aspect of the novel to be very significant.  In my honest opinion, I think that Peekay’s fight to make a name for himself throughout the novel can be related to by many people in society.  The struggle to become known for something is very common in today’s society.