Throughout the story of the novel “The Contender” by Robert Lipsyte, Mr. Donatelli, a gym owner and a boxing manager, is significant to the main character of the book, Alfred Brooks, by teaching him some of his ideals and beliefs. Initially, Alfred Brooks is a young black high school dropout in Harlem who came to Mr. Donatelli in hopes of making his life meaningful and actually become someone in his neighborhood by becoming a champion boxer. In their first encounter, Alfred was told by Mr. Donatelli that the road to becoming a champion in long and hard, and in doing so, Mr. Donatelli mentioned some key ideals and beliefs of hi that have shaped and developed Alfred’s character throughout the course of the story. Alfred, as we see later on in the story, takes what he has learned from Mr. Donatelli and adopts them, then applies them to situations, and lastly taught them to others. Of course, this shows that Mr. Donatelli is significant to Alfred through his ideals and beliefs, and to justify my claim, I shall present quotations from the respective events in the story that I have mentioned. Therefore, let us proceed to analyze said excerpts from the story.

The evolution of Alfred Brook’s character is highlighted by the quotations and excerpts from the story that I have selected to show what Mr. Donatelli taught to Alfred and what Alfred did in reaction. On page 35, paragraph one, a conversation is shown between Alfred and Mr. Donatelli when they first met at the boxing gym during which Mr. Donatelli teaches Alfred an important ideal: “'I want to be somebody,' [said Alfred]. 'Everybody is somebody,' [said Mr. Donatelli]. 'Somebody special.' A champion.' … 'Everyone wants to be a champion. That's not enough. You have to start by wanting to be a contender, the man coming up, the man who knows there's a good chance he'll never get to the top, … It's the climbing that makes the man. Getting to the top is an extra reward.'” Here, Mr. Donatelli teaches Alfred one of his fundamental beliefs in telling Alfred that becoming a champion requires one to actually become a contender and have some experience and successes before reaching the best status one can attain. Essentially, simply trying is not enough for becoming the best, and instead one must push themselves relentlessly and painfully in order to become a champion. For a person like Alfred who is starting the from very bottom with no experience in almost anything nor meaning in their life, this could seem be to a tough challenge in being a contender that they may want to give up because of this difficulty and thus will remain someone insignificant. However, Alfred, as we see later, steps up to the challenges (otherwise he wouldn't have become a skilled boxer) and eventually adopts this belief. Some time later into their conversation in Mr. Donatelli's boxing gym, Mr. Donatelli brings up an ideal about trying in an activity when speaking about the difficulties of becoming a contender on page 36, paragraph one: “'It's not easy trying to become a contender. It's never any fun in the beginning. It's hard work, you'll want to quit at least once everyday. If you quit before you really try, that's worse than never starting all. And nothing's promised to you, nothing's ever promised you.” In this quote, Mr. Donatelli states the road to becoming a contender is filled with hardships, but if one gives up the challenges of becoming a contender without allocating any real effort to it, then they have truly failed. On the other hand, it is never guaranteed that one shall become a contender if they do try, but this at least gives a chance. This unmeasurable probability of becoming a contender, and afterwards, a champion, was enough to inspire Alfred to try his hardest in boxing, apply the ideals and beliefs he learned to different situations, and spread this ideology to others, as shown in next pieces of textual evidence. When riding home from a boxing match, Alfred, in a short conversation with a man named Spoon, shows that he wants to try to become a contender, as shown on page 86, paragraph one to paragraph two: “He [Spoon] stopped for a light, and looked at Alfred. 'Do you want to become a fighter?' 'I'm going to try.' [said Alfred].” Although there is no real way to show that Alfred had adopted Mr. Donatelli's ideals and beliefs, Alfred seems to have adopted his concept of wanting to become a contender rather than directly a champion as well as trying to have a chance to become a contender and/or champion, for he has said this in presence of others, including some of his friends who were riding home with him, and a former boxer, Spoon. This would theoretically inspire Alfred and give him motivation to become a contender, and perhaps a champion as well. Now we can see an initial change in Alfred's character, for he has stated that he will put effort in an activity *boxing in this case) in order to try to become somebody,. Which is better than being insignificant and making no stride for significance. In this way, Mr. Donatelli has influenced Alfred with his beliefs and ideals, therefore making him significant to Alfred by developing his character as the story progresses. The second stage of the character transformation of Alfred is seen on page 142, paragraph one in Alfred's thoughts when he trains in boxing: “Jab-jab-hook … jab-hook-right … hook to the body … cross the chin … body … head … jab .. jab … jab … [These are presumably Alfred's thoughts during his daily life].” We see here that Alfred thinks of various boxing moves and combinations in his mind, and there is no indication as when he has these thoughtsl however, such obsessive mental behavior suggests that Alfred is constantly thinking about boxing and is trying to constantly improve. This clearly shows that Alfred is indeed trying hard to become a contender (and later a champion) by incorporating both the physical and mental (strategies and combinations) into his boxing training. From this I conclude that Alfred has adopted Mr. Donatelli's beliefs and ideals of trying hard and striving for successes in anything so that one could be considered a contender. Of course, all this effort could prove to not make Alfred a contender eventually, but by simply trying to train in boxing, Alfred acknowledges that this is a risk. Hence, by teaching his ideals and beliefs to Alfred, who is trying with effort in his boxing training in order to arise from being simply somebody to being a contender and/or a champion, Mr. Donatelli is significant to Alfred for developing his character. Lastly, we see a final stage in Alfred's transformation in character after Alfred had quit participating in boxing matches (but not boxing as a whole) and has not attained the status or prestige of being a contender or a champion but teaches a former friends of his and a drug addict, James, the ideals and beliefs Mr. Donatelli had taught him in order for James to improve his own life, as seen as the conclusion of the book on page 226, paragraph one to paragraph two: “[We'll help you] get a job.' [said Alfred]. 'Grocery boy,' said James. 'For start. Nothing's promised you, man, but you ain't gonna know nothing till you try. Maybe get to build things like you always wanted.'” Without a doubt, Alfred explicitly displays knowledge of the ideals and beliefs Mr. Donatelli had taught him and passes this knowledge down to James, who was one much like Alfred at the start of story in being somebody insignificant, and so receiving this knowledge, adopting, and applying it will allow James to make somebody of himself, such as an engineer, as Alfred had suggest. In addition, James could teach these concepts to others in need, thus restarting the cycle. Of course, while Alfred himself did not become a contender or a champion, he did become an athletic figure in community, and his success in boxing has made him somebody, and that is what Alfred had hoped in the beginning, thus now giving him confidence to try other things, such as finishing high school, getting a more respectable career, etc. All of this development of Alfred's character stems from Mr. Donatelli, who taught these beliefs and ideals to Alfred, therefore making him significant to Alfred in the story/ The presented quotations and excerpts from the story clearly show that Mr. Donatelli is significant to Alfred in that he teaches him some ideals and beliefs that gradually develops Alfred's character in three stages.

As the story progressed in the novel “The Contender,” Alfred Brooks, the main character, grew from being somebody insignificant and unknown to being an athletic boxing figure in his community, and his development in character can all be credited to Mr. Donatelli, a gym owner and a boxing manager, who taught Alfred ideals and beliefs that inspired Alfred to train in boxing in order to become somebody. Said ideals and beliefs mainly consist of training hard and striving to become a contender first before trying to become a champion, as well as not giving before real effort is put into something (boxing in this case) and realizing that nothing is given for certain in life. Using these beliefs and ideals, Alfred guided himself into adopting these ideals with motivation gained from publicly announcing to significant others that he will try to become a contender and/or a champion, into applying them in his boxing training, and teaching them to James, a former friend of Alfred and a drug addict, so that they could together reignite their friendship and help James get rid of his drug addiction, get an education, and earn a respectable occupation in the world. A transformation in Alfred's character is clearly seen in those three stages, and he has actually become somebody notable by training and trying hard to succeed in boxing, which allows him to strive for success and perfection in other pursuits and activities. This is largely due to how Mr. Donatelli had taught Alfred several key beliefs and ideals at the beginning of the story, and so Mr. Donatelli is then vital to the development of Alfred's character in the book. In conclusion, Mr. Donatelli is significant to Alfred by developing his character as the story progressed as a result of the beliefs and ideals Mr. Donatelli taught to him the at the start of the book “The Contender” by Robert Lipsyte.