Way of the Warrior Kid

In this set of chapters, Marc hits his first real challenge on the way to becoming a warrior. This in and of itself marks a significant narrative development in a novel that celebrates perseverance: To demonstrate that he has internalized Jake’s lessons about determination and confidence in oneself, Marc must not give up the moment he encounters a setback.

The details of that setback also allow for elaboration on one of the novel’s major themes. Marc is not naturally inclined to get up early, engage in strenuous exercise, or eat only healthy food (traits intended to humanize him for young readers and thus demonstrate that they too can accomplish what he is accomplishing). Moreover, since Marc has been working hard, it is very tempting to feel that he’s earned a break and can go back to his old ways, if only for a short time. This brings him his first real rebuke from Jake, who up until this point has been a firm and serious but mostly gentle teacher. However, when Marc says that he just wants “a little freedom,” he gets a stern lecture from Jake: “All of us [want freedom]. That is what I want in my life. That is what my friends and I fought for overseas. Freedom is the best thing in the world. But freedom isn’t free. If you want true freedom in life, you have to have discipline” (81). Jake here expresses the paradoxical idea that Discipline Equals Freedom, suggesting that when someone has not worked hard to improve themselves, they are not free, even if they enjoy their time as they please: They might have a sense of choice, but their choices are confined by their limited abilities. The word choice—“discipline” rather than less punitive-sounding options like “self-control”—reflects Jake’s military training, but the novel again posits that the lesson is relevant to everyday civilian life as well. 

Marc appears to take the lesson to heart, accomplishing his first pull-up, after which Jake advises him to stay humble before offering a celebratory high-five. Soon afterward, however, Marc is once again watching TV, thinking that it’s all right to do so since “[he] already worked out today. And [his] room is clean. And [he] did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen” (94). In a sense, he has done all that is expected of him, but Jake then informs him that an important aspect of discipline is not just doing what is necessary but striving for constant improvement (an idea that is also central to the novel’s exploration of Confidence and Humility as Mutually Reinforcing and The Warrior Code as a Model for Excellence). Doing flash cards with a stopwatch exposes that Marc still has more to learn, especially in terms of operating under pressure. When Marc thinks he did it reasonably fast, Jake tells him that it needs to be faster. Discipline here means an absolute lack of comfort in the expectation that comfort will build complacency: If someone is not propelling themselves forward, they will be dragged backward. This again speaks to the particularly rigid military framework within which Jake is operating. 

The novel tempers this portrayal somewhat by distinguishing complacency from actual inability and showing grace for the latter (Jake does not immediately demand that Marc jump off the bridge, for example). Overall, however, it endorses Jake’s methods, as evidenced by the fact that Marc is rewarded for his efforts by achieving his first tap-out in jiujitsu. This time, moreover, Marc takes the right lesson: that one success is simply a step on the way to further successes. Demonstrating skills is also going to expose vulnerabilities, so any moment of celebration must immediately give way to targeting areas of improvement. Marc is on his way, but part of that journey is recognizing how far he has to go, and that the journey is never really over.