Fighting Ruben Wolfe Essay

The novel ‘Fighting Ruben Wolfe’ written by Marcus Zusak is about the Wolfe family, it’s about them fighting, fighting for the same reason against different opponents. They fight for their family and their pride. Marcus Zusak shows how Ruben is fighting against himself, he wants to prove himself although he is a winner. Cameron is fighting to find his place in society and to discover who he really is. Mr Wolfe (Clifford) is fighting for his pride and for his family because he doesn’t want to let his family down. He feels really guilty for losing his job and not earning any money for his family. Clifford Wolfe is a very proud, hardworking, husband and father. In the book â€Å"Fighting Ruben Wolfe† Markus Zusak shows how Clifford lives his life for his family, everything he does is for his family and their reputation but Clifford loses his job and becomes broke and struggling to find money. â€Å"Dad- the plumber, who had an accident at work a few months ago and lost all of his jobs. Sure, insurance paid for his injuries, but now he’s just plain out of work for it. Page 15. After the accident he devotes his life to protecting the family name and his pride, his wife has to start working long hours to earn enough money for their family which he hates. He goes door to door looking for work but does not succeed. Towards the end of the book Mr Wolfe finally decides to go to the dole office which he hates to do but has no other option. Fortunately his family stop him before he gets t he dole which makes Clifford’s pride rocket upwards. In his eyes there is nothing worse than going to get the dole. In the end the family is back to normal with enough money to live on. Ruben is a fighter, he fights for his pride but he is also fighting against himself. It’s like he feels he has to prove himself to himself. In the book Ruben faces his family’s reputation going quickly downhill after Ruben and Cameron hear a guy at their school calling their sister Sarah a slut behind her back. Ruben beats up the guy and it is then that he realises he actually has a reason to fight. He needs to fight and not just win. He needs to get his family’s good reputation back. â€Å"We gotta lift† page 74. This quote shows Ruben deciding he has to lift his game and start showing some responsibility, if they don’t they will slowly but surely lose their good reputation as well as their money. Cameron is a fighter but he is not a winner like Ruben. Cameron is fighting to find his place in society and to give himself more confidence. He has been hidden in Rubens shadow all his life and now he wants to be someone and stand on his own two feet. He needs to fight to earn money for his family and make them proud of him and to help them as much as he can. Cameron thinks all the time but never really says what he is thinking. The fighting helps Cameron come out of his shell and become a winner as well as a fighter. He has always just accepted the fact that Ruben was the winner, he would always be in second place. â€Å"There are four weeks now until I fight my brother. Fighting Ruben Wolfe. I wonder how it will feel. What will it be like to fight him – not in our backyard, but in the ring, under all the lights, and with the crowd watching and cheering and waiting for the blood? † Page 138. This will be the fight that determines whether Cameron can be a winner as well as a fighter. In conclusion everyone in the Wolfe family was fighting, Cameron was fighting become a winner as well as a fighter, Ruben was fighting become a fighter as well as a winner, Clifford Wolfe was trying to keep his pride and the Wolfe family’s good reputation out of harm’s way and they all succeed in doing so.