“Even though I know that not being able to do pull-ups and not being able to swim doesn’t make you a bad person, I had had enough. I could feel tears building up in my eyes. I didn’t want anyone to see me cry, so I ran. I ran off the recess field, through the courtyard, and behind the library, where no one ever goes. I sat down, and that was it. I cried like a little baby.”

The inciting incident of the book comes to represent the many humiliations that Marc has endured at school. His repetition of the phrase “I ran,” as well as the list of the places he ran through or by, underscores his sense of personal failure.

“So what is the point in telling her what was wrong? If I did, she would say something like, ‘Well, that boy is just jealous because you are smarter than he is,’ or ‘you’ll get stronger when you get a little older’ or ‘don’t worry about what other people say, because I know how special you are.’”

Marc’s mother plays a very small role in the book in part because—as this passage demonstrates—Marc does not believe she can understand his experiences. Though Marc can recognize the intentions behind his mother’s sentiments, her attempt to make him feel better does not quite resonate with him. The imagined responses Marc imagines his mother giving—e.g., her assurance that he is fine the way he is—notably contrast with the kind of advice Jake gives him and thus serve as a kind of negative example in a work that frames Jake’s course as the correct one. However, Marc’s mother later supports Jake’s efforts with her son, so the imagined dialogue here says more about his own worldview than his mother’s.

“‘Look, Marc,’ he said. ‘When I joined the Navy, I could only do seven pull-ups. Now I can do forty-seven. I wasn’t a great swimmer. Now I can swim like a fish. I also didn’t do that well in school, but when I got into SEAL training, I learned how to learn and ended up doing great on all the academic tests. And finally, when I first got into SEAL Teams, I knew nothing about fighting. But now I can handle myself in any situation.’”

In many respects, Uncle Jake comes off as a superhero; one of the graphic images in the book quite literally depicts him as though he were Superman. Yet Jake is still capable of modesty, emphasizing, via a series of juxtaposed statements, that he came to his current physical and mental prowess through hard work, not natural talent. This underscores that it is possible for anyone to imagine a better version of themselves and is key to the theme of Confidence and Humility as Mutually Reinforcing.

“There is a lot more to being a warrior than just being in a war. Warriors are people that stand up for themselves. They face challenges. Warriors work hard to achieve goals. They have the discipline to overcome their weaknesses. Warriors are people that constantly try to test and improve themselves. And yes, war is the ultimate test, but not all warriors go to war.”

Jake believes that while the ultimate version of a warrior must face combat, The Warrior Code as a Model for Excellence is nevertheless applicable to civilian life and even to children’s lives. Someone like Marc can adopt the ethos of a warrior without having to risk their life or inflict harm on someone else. While the skills he teaches Marc might be relevant in wartime, they can be useful elsewhere as well.

“Doing all those exercises in the morning actually made me feel better all day. I felt awake and good and like I had extra energy. So even though the early wake up and exercising was kind of rough, I really liked the way it made me feel for the rest of the day. It was worth it!”

Though he is not naturally inclined to get up early or exercise, Marc learns an early lesson that a little bit of discomfort can have immense benefits almost immediately afterward—an idea key to the novel’s contention that Discipline Equals Freedom.

“The warrior code isn’t enforced by police. It is something that you have to hold yourself to. Something that keeps you on the right path in life.”

The various warrior codes that Jake shows to Marc are different in many respects and similar in others, but what they all have in common is a code of ethics that binds a person from within. They either adhere to the code through their own conduct, or they fail the test. The passage foreshadows that Marc will eventually have to stand on his own, putting the lessons he has learned into practice without Jake’s support.

“It seemed like a YEAR PASSED as I stepped up onto the box and slowly reached toward the pull-up bar. I grabbed ahold of it. It was much thicker than the pull-up bar at school. I pulled as hard as I could…but nothing happened.”

In the earlier portions of training, progress is slow, in part because Marc has much to learn but also because (as his reference to a year passing suggests) his fear makes time itself seem to slow down. The pull-up bar especially is a formidable barrier, and Jake has to find ways to help Marc gain the confidence to attack it. However, these very failures will help Marc learn that not everything comes easy and that harder struggles produce greater rewards.

“Finally, and most importantly, a warrior’s best weapon is the mind. They have to use their minds to figure out how to beat the enemy: how to catch them off guard. How to attack where the enemy is weak. How to OUTSMART the enemy. You can’t do that if you aren’t SMART.”

Jake is sure to make intellectual training, not just physical strength, a part of Marc’s program. He explains this with reference to the broader ethos of the warrior code, arguing that one cannot defeat an enemy without superior intelligence. However, it also underscores the novel’s contention that the idea of the warrior code is broadly relevant: Even without an enemy to fight, Marc gains confidence and comes to see his limitations as capable of fixing through exercises like memorization.

“My first night of jiu-jitsu was humiliating, exhausting, kind of painful, embarrassing, and COMPLETELY AWESOME because for the first time in my life, I realized that I could learn a skill that would give me the ability to defend myself and my friends from guys like Kenny. FREEDOM!”

Jiujitsu is a major part of Jocko Willink’s real-life training program, and here he shows how it could apply to someone like Marc. Since it is heavily organized around takedowns and tap-outs, young students are able to improve their skills without inflicting any real damage while learning that skill outpaces raw power. Marc’s use of capitalization underscores the novel’s ideas about hard work’s rewards; the benefits of jiujitsu (“FREEDOM!” and being “COMPLETELY AWESOME”) literally tower over the drawbacks.

“He said that in the SEAL Teams they yelled ‘HOO-YAH’ when they had to do something they didn’t want to do or something they were scared to do. He said yelling loud relieves the stress of being scared. He told me to give a yell and see how it felt.”

Jake and Marc’s relationship largely unfolds within the parameters of teacher versus student, but Jake’s admission that he is sometimes scared humanizes him for both Marc and readers. It becomes a moment of genuine joy and companionship between him and Marc and transforms Jake into a different kind of role model: In overcoming fear, Marc not only learns a lesson but is able to be more like his idol, whose words he still clearly hangs on (as evidenced by the repetition of “he said,” an instance of anaphora).

“We all want freedom in life. We want to be able to do what we want. We want to live free. But in order to get freedom, we have to work for it. Work hard. WE have to earn that freedom. Freedom requires discipline. So even though sometimes discipline seems like it is trapping you and making you do things that you don’t want to do, discipline is the thing that will set you free.”

In one of the clearest thematic statements in the book, Jake is harsh but instructive regarding the facts of his program and of life more generally. The narrative action endorses Jake’s contention that discipline is necessary for freedom: The harder Marc works, the closer he gets to his goals, which are not only satisfying in their own right but also open up new opportunities.

“Your goal isn’t one pull-up. It’s ten pull-ups. You did one. Sure, you have a reason to be happy—one pull-up is better than zero. But it is a long way from ten. No matter what you are doing in life, you can’t take your eyes off the long-term goal—especially to celebrate.”

The pull-up has been such a symbolic obstacle for Marc that once he does one, he feels he has accomplished his goal. For this reason, it is one of the first moments that Jake cuts a celebration short and insists that there is more work to do, underscoring his overall message about discipline and the dangers of complacency.

“And that is the way you should do everything—the absolute best you can. Give it everything you’ve got. One hundred percent. That will get you where you want to be.”

When Jake finds Marc satisfied with himself for having done everything he was supposed to do, he pushes him to the next level. It is no longer sufficient for Marc to perform his required tasks; he must pursue excellence in those tasks at all times and with total effort. The demand reflects the book’s strict views on discipline but also helps prepare Marc for Jake’s departure by encouraging him to strive for excellence not only in what he has been told to do but also in what he has not.

“THAT WAS IT! The first time I had ever tapped someone out! YES! But even though I was SUPER EXCITED and FIRED UP that I was able to tap out Jaden, I knew I needed to stay calm and be nice to him. ‘Don’t worry, Jaden, it happens to everyone when they start out.’”

Even though it was against a novice, Marc gets a much-needed boost of confidence from getting someone to tap out in a jiujitsu sparring match. However, the novel teaches that triumph must always be paired with a respectful attitude, based on the humble knowledge that no one wins all the time. That Marc remembers this even in his excitement illustrates his character development.

“You need to eat REAL FOOD. Steak. Fish. Chicken. Eggs. Pork. Salad. Vegetables. Nuts and seeds. Stuff that is real food, not stuff that comes from a factory like those potato chips…or that sandwich!”

Jake is generally a kind and supportive teacher, but here he lets out his harsher side. He shows no mercy for Marc’s dietary choices, even compelling him to throw the food into the garbage. However, as with all of Jake’s lessons, the novel frames this one as correct; Jake’s mother, in a rare moment of dialogue, says that she will no longer purchase junk food.

“For some reason, which I may never understand, when he got to three and said, ‘Go,’ I made an instant decision. I pushed off the bank and started to swim. I felt scared and alone at first, but I just focused on the other side and kept swimming. Each stroke brought me closer and closer to Uncle Jake and the sandy little beach on the other side. Then, just when I really felt comfortable with it, I felt my foot touch the bottom. I HAD. MADE. IT. YESSS!!!!!”

The further Marc progresses, the more he is able to trust in himself and not rely on Jake pressuring or cajoling him. In this instance, Jake does have to tell him to swim, but once Marc does it, he comes closer to the realization that he has what it takes inside of himself and will not always need someone to motivate him. The capitalization and punctuation of the final sentence underscores just how major a symbolic victory swimming from one side of the river to the other is for Marc, who began the novel afraid to go in the water at all.

“We are going to push you harder—the hardest you’ve been pushed in your workouts—and we will do a workout specifically based on stressing your pull-up muscles to smash this plateau and get your pull-up numbers increasing. Be ready for a good workout tomorrow morning…be ready for some pain in the morning.”

Jake is capable of being a harsh teacher, and he is unsparing in his insistence that Marc endure real pain as a means of making positive changes. As always, Jake’s advice is proven correct, and he amply rewards Marc for his efforts, but the fact that Jake pushes his nephew to keep working out even as his fingers are bleeding demonstrates the novel’s particularly strict views on hard work, informed by the author’s military background.

“Almost fifty thousand men were killed or wounded in three days of fighting. After the battle was over, President Lincoln came to the site and gave a speech called the Gettysburg Address. Although the speech was only ten sentences long and President Lincoln spoke only for two minutes, my uncle Jake says it is one of the best speeches ever.”

The chapter on presidents and the Gettysburg Address is one of a few stand-alone chapters; it has no obvious relationship to the challenges that Marc is trying to tackle and is never referenced afterward. The episode conveys a message of patriotism and associates this with the idea of a Warrior Code, although the choice of speech—one delivered during the Civil War—also implicitly underscores the novel’s message about sacrificing for freedom.

“Stay humble, I thought to myself as I said ‘it’s just that I have been training longer than you. Don’t worry. It’s easy to learn and you’ll pick it up fast as long as you keep training.’”

Once again, victory in the jiujitsu gym calls for a moment of humility, although it is harder to summon against a large opponent who makes Marc think of his looming showdown with Kenny Williamson. Even so, Marc shows that he really is learning the way of the warrior, as he grows humbler even as his abilities progress.

“You see, fear lives in the moment—that powerful moment—between when you decide you are going to do something and when you do it. Once you go—once you start—you won’t be afraid anymore. You overcome the fear by going—and it is the same in many aspects of life.”

Jake often says that his advice applies to every aspect of life—for instance, that learning to overcome fear can help one cope with a variety of circumstances. Jake delivers his advice of treating fear as a momentary harness that one can break through in a form that mirrors the content; the many dashes in the passage create pauses that bracket off the “moment” of fear in the way that Jake is describing.

“This is about everything. Everything. Just think, two months ago, you couldn’t do any pull-ups. At all. Zero. Now you can do TEN. All it took was a good plan and the discipline to execute the plan. To DO IT. That’s what it takes. And you can apply that to just about anything. If you are willing to do the work—you can make things happen.”

This is the clearest expression of Jake’s overall message: that hard work and discipline can help people of all ages and backgrounds overcome their challenges. It is a message that is very common within self-help literature, but Willick frames it around Jake’s experiences in the military and applies it to a young audience that self-help authors do not target as frequently.

“As a matter of fact, you never needed me. Sure, I showed you the path, but you could have found it on your own. You know what you need to do to stay on the warrior path. Hard work. Discipline. Study. Eat good food. Keep your room and your gear in order. Set new goals and work hard to meet them. Keep training jiu-jitsu. This is all stuff you know.”

Here Jake offers a humble appraisal of his contribution that is somewhat at odds with the number of times he has corrected Marc, overcome Marc’s objections, or compelled him to do something he did not want to do. His message is in line with his role as an archetypal mentor, however: Having learned from Jake, Marc is now ready to practice what he has learned on his own.

“All the training, all the jiu-jitsu, all the wrestling and sparring and pull-ups and working out. I knew 100 percent I was going to beat him. I stepped even closer to Kenny and said, ‘Go ahead and try, and I promise that you will never forget what I do to you.”

In another reflection of the novel’s positive portrayal of “warriors,” Marc resorts to threats of violence to resolve his dispute with Kenny (although Kenny did threaten him first). That this works effectively endorses Marc’s methods; Kenny immediately recognizes the sincerity of Marc’s confidence compared to his own empty bravado.