Headshot

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, gender discrimination, child death, and bullying.

In Bullwinkel’s novel, stakes are tied to personal identity rather than to the desire to win the prizes associated with the tournament. The novel emphasizes this by driving the low value of the prize at stake. When Rose walks past the tournament trophy at the end of Chapter 8, she observes the crack that gives away the trophy’s cheap plastic nature. This gives the trophy a symbolic function that suggests that all the Daughters of America Cup champions are unimportant to the outside world. In this sense, the trophy is the antithesis to what the tournament really means to the boxers: a chance to define themselves on their own terms.

All eight boxers are in the midst of affirming their chosen selves and overcoming the definitions that have been foisted upon them by their past. Artemis, for instance, is favored to win because she comes from a prestigious boxing family. Although Artemis’s legacy status grants her access to privileges that the other contenders do not have, such as familiarity with the judges and top-level training, Artemis longs to escape the pressure of being a legacy boxer. Artemis constantly compares herself to her older sister, a former champion, and refuses to be seen as less than her. It is only at the end of her bout with Andi Taylor that Artemis becomes conscious of her desire to open a “secret door” (40) to a world that frees her from her family and grants her agency. She can only access this door by proving that she is as good as her sisters.

Many of the tournament contenders feel similarly. Andi wants to overcome her guilt at passively letting a boy drown at the pool where she works by inflicting willful violence on Artemis. Izzy wants to shed the identity that her cousin Iggy has forced upon her. Being the only girl boxer in her gym made Izzy feel special, but when Iggy came along, Izzy became just the older cousin boxer. Kate convinces herself that losing the tournament will earn the approval of the people she loves, which she values more than anything in the world. Tanya wants to escape the violence of her mother’s abandonment, which continues to haunt her. All of these teenagers cannot claim the lives ahead of them without first breaking away from the tethers of the past. This is what the tournament represents to them.

In contrast, three boxers want to affirm identities they have determined for themselves. These identities normally go against the expectations of the world around them. Rachel represents this most strongly through her weird-hat philosophy. After losing her home in early childhood, Rachel has a nihilistic outlook. Her weird-hat philosophy is meant to disturb others and expose the meaninglessness of their values. Similarly, Iggy wants her local community to admire her as a legend, though she discovers during her bout with Rose that her sense of self necessarily relies on comparison with Izzy. Finally, boxing allows Rose to escape the crushing loneliness of her regular life. As a survivor of bullying, Rose is made to feel like no one really values her presence. However, “[b]oxing is the opposite of being alone on a dust-filled prairie. Rose Mueller loves every girl who agrees to fight against her because they have agreed to be with her without needing to speak to her. […] It is a gift to be alive, and to be fighting each other” (144), which is why she feels love toward Tanya during their match. Rose sees past the violence of boxing and experiences it as an opportunity to commune. This resonates with the motif of the world discus, in which all of the boxers’ worlds fit perfectly onto one another. When they are boxing, the girls fit into reality.