The Contender

4 Pages 906 Words

The book The Contender was written by Robert Lipsyte. The setting of this book takes place in Harlem, New York with a boy named Alfred Brooks. Alfred Brooks is a young black man who had dropped out of high school because he didn’t like it, and now works at a local grocery shop, stocking self’s and cleaning up around the store. Alfred moved in with his Aunt Pearl and her daughters when he was 10 years old, after his mother had passed away with pneumonia. Alfred’s best friend James Mosely gets involved with the wrong crowd, and starts taking drugs and drinking instead of hang out with Alfred, and going to see movies every weekend. About this time in the story is when Alfred starts to get interested in boxing, after being beat up by these “friends” or bad influences that his friend James was hanging out with. Throughout the whole story Alfred still cared about his friend James, and didn’t want to see him get hurt. Through all the trying things that happened to Alfred in this book it made him a stronger friend, and also a stronger person in general. At the end of the story Alfred decides to go back and take his high school classes at night, and also promises to help James with his addiction to drugs, by finding him a drug rehab center.
In the book The Contender Alfred Brooks shows many examples of maturing, as the story unfolds. He is very responsible and compassionate toward his Aunt Pearl and the girls, because he wants the best for them. Alfred gave the majority of his paycheck to his aunt to help pay for their apartments rent. Alfred also gains wisdom by learning from all his mistakes. When he went to the clubhouse looking for James and he stayed there waiting for him, and in the mean time got drunk and high, he then began to think he was foolish for trying to become a boxer. The next day he went to Coney Island with Major and the other bad influences in a “stolen car”, Alfred then learned that he couldn’t trust them....