40 pages • 1 hour read
Way of the Warrior Kid
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Symbols & Motifs
The Pull-Up Bar
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying.
While Marc endures many humiliations at the start of the book, the pull-up bar becomes symbolic of his troubles at school. Unable to do even a single rep, he feels weak when confronted by the bar, a feeling compounded by the humiliation that Kenny Williamson and the other students inflict upon him when he fails. Marc finds help in the form of Jake, a Navy SEAL for whom pull-ups are a matter of course. As they begin their warrior training, the pull-up remains a daunting challenge for Marc, and when Jake has one installed in the garage, Marc says that he is “SCARED and NERVOUS and EMBARRASSED because [he] already [knows] that [he can’t] do a single pull-up!” (52). Jake is more patient with Marc regarding pull-ups than he is with other tasks, at least at first, giving him time to scale up to doing a full rep. However, once Marc is able to do one, Jake pushes him hard to boost his numbers, even making him do 100 to push him to the goal of 10 pull-ups. Once he accomplishes that goal, his training (if not the program) is officially complete. The pull-up bar thus evolves from a symbol of (perceived) weakness to a symbol of Marc’s perseverance and triumph.
Jiujitsu
Jocko Willink is a jiujitsu instructor, so he makes it a major portion of Marc’s training. Jiujitsu is an especially appropriate art for warrior training. It simulates combat, which Jake insists is the “ultimate test” for a warrior, but at least as importantly, it is primarily based on skill rather than physical strength. Marc is therefore ultimately able to get a much larger opponent to tap out because “technique triumphs over strength and size” (143). Marc cannot make himself bigger or stronger than other kids, but jiujitsu places the body at the service of the mind, so the combatant who keeps their calm and sticks to their training is going to win.
Jiujitsu is therefore one of the areas where Marc develops the most amount of confidence most quickly, making it a motif connected to Confidence and Humility as Mutually Reinforcing. Every sparring session is a chance to learn, and the tap-out is a clear signal that a mistake has been made and that it is time to try again. Most importantly for Marc, jiujitsu levels the playing field and eventually allows him to confront his bully; he describes it as “humiliating, exhausting, kind of painful, embarrassing, and COMPLETELY AWESOME because for the first time in [his] life, [he] realized that [he] could learn a skill that would give [him] the ability to defend [him]self and [his] friends from guys like Kenny. FREEDOM!” (70). Here, Marc connects jiujitsu to the theme of Discipline Equals Freedom as well, showing how his hard work in practicing the sport frees him from worrying about being bullied.
Flash Cards
Jake places a great emphasis on “learning how to learn” (60)—i.e., on honing the skills with which to acquire information more efficiently. For his training of Marc, he principally relies on flash cards or similar tools centered around memorization. Some concepts cannot be learned through memorization, so this method cannot be replicated in every aspect of Marc’s education. However, in the specific context of warrior training, it does have a valuable function. In the stressful situations that warriors (literal or otherwise) face, the key is to think quickly and decisively. Once Jake starts using a stopwatch to time Marc’s answers to the multiplication tables, he fumbles a bit under the pressure and takes much longer to complete all the answers than what Jake thinks is possible. Getting used to that pressure will help Marc not only to come up with answers to questions but also to keep cool under other kinds of intense situations, even those where there is not a clear right and wrong answer. Jake also has him memorize the list of presidents and the entire text of the Gettysburg Address. This is partly because Jake thinks it is worthwhile information to have, reflecting the part of the warrior ethos that teaches love of country, but it also reinforces his emphasis on learning and memorization. Fortunately for Marc, his first test back at school is on the multiplication tables, so his training serves him well. The flashcards thus serve as a motif related to Jake’s understanding of what it means to be a warrior, developing themes of both discipline and The Warrior Code as a Model for Excellence.
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