Character development

[John]

This book tracks the 1998 cross country running season of the University of Colorado Boulder cross country team through a number of journal entries. It starts out by revealing the team members and how their summer training went. It is shocking to read about many runners running over 100 miles per week.It is hard to imagine putting yourself through that much pain just for a summer season. And that was the easy training. When the season started the head coach, Mark Westmore,put the athletes through weeks of grueling training. For example, 18 mile runs up mountains at a 6 minute mile pace. Through the intense training it is easy to foreshadow a brotherhood emerging. Like any team the runners are slightly harsh toward the freshmen and walk-ons. But as the season progresses they form a bond that really is unbreakable. And even though they all run at different paces, they all endure the same pain. They all know what it feels like to collapse due to exhaustion. And they all know that if they train hard enough the could emerge with a national title. It will be interesting to see where the season takes them, and to see how the coach coaches.

[Ben]

my book Unbroken is very similar it tracks the journey of an American World War II pilot. His plane gets shots down and is stranded at sea. He is also a runner and he actually ends up going to the the olympics but he also talks about his training. At one point he talks about his training and he says, "He ran his entire paper route for the Terrance Hearald, to and from school, and to the beach and back." So just like the Colorado runners he is putting himself through workout after workout. Another way that this is similar is the brotherhood aspect. When he ran it was alone but you can see the brotherhood in his military career. The way to form true brotherhoods is by having to rely on each other, just like the Colorado team had to rely on each other during workouts Louis had to rely on his crew during training and during missions.

[Elaina]

My book, A Stolen Life, also talks about people who are at different places in their lives, yet endure the same emotional pain. Jaycee and her mom are the two characters that are in different situations, yet experience the same pain. The book explains the 18 years that Jaycee was held captive, being emotionally and physically beaten up in a stranger's backyard, and over the course of 18 years, she must put the idea of her family, and the life she once knew, behind her. It seems as though her pain is obviously greater than what her mother endures, but after the reunion, you realize that her mom went through the same amount of emotional pain that her daughter went through. They both knew what it felt like to be alone, without knowing what is happening with the other and what the other was doing. They had no idea how to deal with their emotions, basically crying themselves to sleep every night. However, they also both knew that if they tried hard enough, they could hopefully see each other again. Jaycee and her mom were a team. Though they did not realize it, their teamwork with praying and faith really helped bring them closer once she was rescued. They formed an unbreakable bond.

[Mac]

In my book, Lone Survivor, there is also an extremely strong brotherhood between all of the Navy SEALs, but particularly between Marcus Luttrell and his three other team members: Axe, Danny, and Mikey. Luttrell emphasizes that the team did not only eat, sleep, go to the restroom, perform missions, and play together, but they all thought together. This task team of four guys all thought and moved exactly alike, they were on the same page at all times, so that during missions they could minimize communication, and decrease the chances of giving themselves away, because they knew would each other would be doing. But Luttrell describes that their relationship went even deeper than that, not only did they all know what each other would be doing, but they had complete trust in one another, they knew that the guy next to them would have their back, and would die for them if he needed to... that is the sign of a true brotherhood.

[John]

More emotional pain and endurance is seen in my book when the runners talk about their injuries. A good example of this is the team member named Goucher. "By now, though, he is no stranger to untimely misfortune sabotaging his season. Since his freshmen year he has been poised to win the NCAA championship, but each time illness or injury has debilitated him when it mattered most. Just last year he seemed indomitable as he marched through the season undefeated. But a cold felled him the week of the NCAA's, and a beleaguered Goucher could only manage a fourth-place finish" (Lear 2). This must have been devistating for him becasue apparantly that happened every year. To train so hard and to come so close would definitely discourage most people. But he was strong enough to keep pushing and to keep working hard.It will be interesting to read about how his season progresses. So far in the book it appears like he is going to run very well. However, many of the other runners on the team will probably fall to injury. It is rare for a team to go without injury. That is why they have so many runners. Because every year there are an abundance of injuries.

[Ben]

In my book Unbroken the main character also has to go through this kind of disappointment, in his case he did not have to deal with injury but war. He competed in the Olympics when it was in Germany. He had trained extremely hard to get to the Olympics and he did not win but he knew that the could the next Olympics which were scheduled to be in Japan. However before he got a chance to compete they were cancelled due to the war. So he also had to go through that disappointment in that he was training so hard to get the gold which he knew he could win, when something outside of his control did not allow him to compete which is the same as Goucher in that something outside of his control kept him from competing at his highest level. So now it is just a matter of reading and figuring out how the characters will deal with that disappointment.