Every day, one experiences a form of culture and stereotypes. Experiences and societal influence determine how one acts toward and against a cultural group. In Chris Crutcher’s story, Bo Brewster is the subject of Larry King’s study of America’s future premier Ironman. Yet while viewing the story with aims to cultural studies, Bo is the subject of many cultural obstacles in his quest to victory. Serving as the medium of this study, Readers may view Crutcher’s masterpiece as a study of culture, stereotypes, and their actuality.

        Throughout Chris Crutcher’s Ironman, Bo Brewster’s collection of stories about his war with his father never empties. Since he can remember, he has been engaged in this struggle that seemingly will never end. Bo’s determination, drive, and independent attributes enable him to focus on his dreams and desires rather than the anger built up inside his powerhouse body. Throughout the story, the reader finds Bo using the anger stimulated by every occurrence with his father and his swim-team rival, Ian Wyrack, as motivation to conquer his dream of becoming an ironman and his goal to dominate the upcoming Yukon Jack triathlon. A triathlete, Bo explains in a letter to Larry King, “. . . is a swimming, bicycling, running lunatic, willing and able to cover great distances at high speeds while enduring extreme physical pain. That’s me, Lar . . ." (Crutcher, Ironman 2).

        Ever since Bo quit the high school football team because of its asshole coach, Mr. Redmond, the coach/English teacher has been out to get him. Mr. Redmond and Bo encounter each other on a daily basis, not only fueling Bo’s afternoon rides and runs, but throwing a kink into Bo’s training regime as well. One specific argument began with Redmond taunting Bo about a missed assignment and ended with Bo’s dismissal from class for a long time. This occurrence soon landed Bo in Mr. Nakatani’s before-school anger management group, which is notorious for containing society’s future serial killers and free-way snipers.

        Bo’s major conflict is his expectations of Mr. Nak’s anger management class, in which he must sit in order to sustain minimal consequences from his outburst in Redmond’s English class. Around school, and especially to Bo, Mr. Nak is viewed as a crazy Chinese cowboy who feeds his victims with useless and weird information. He is known to teach to the country’s future villains. Bo’s presumption of the class brings upon his unwillingness to give the group a chance. Through the course of the story, Bo realizes the reality of the group, and how most of its students are not felons, but indeed kids with stories to tell, just like Bo, concerning their stress and violated lifes.

        Although Bo struggles to be accepted by the students of Mr. Nak’s class, one of its members eventually welcomes him with open arms. Shelly is the girl Bo remembers from Clark Fork University weight room as “. . . a really, sleek, powerful-looking girl doing battle with a rowing machine, who I was afraid to look at for reasons of self-esteem—and lust. . .(Crutcher, Ironman 14).” After the start of their long-term relationship, when Shelly beat-up Ian Wyrack, Bo found her to be appealing because of her similar obsession with physical well-being. Bo’s enjoyment of fitness is reaffirmed as he explains:

        This pre-workout performance defines Bo’s attitude toward his training’s effects on his body rewarding but hopeful. With Shelly’s dreams of becoming an American Gladiator, her training regime impresses Bo’s. She constantly helps Bo remain poise and sparks his motivation toward the end of the story, as Bo edges toward his pursuit to defeat his enemies in the Yukon Jack triathlon.

        Even more upsetting than the never-ending father-son saga, is the news of Bo’s best friend/swim coach/teacher’s homosexuality. Bo and Mr. Serbousek have been close for a long time. When Bo found out from his father, and confronted Mr. S about his sexuality, he was shocked, confused, and angry enough to end their relationship.

        At this point in the story, the Other has faced Bo straight in the eye. Bo’s reactions to his mentor’s homosexuality is a perfect example of what society sometimes does in response to homosexuals. People are often afraid of anything different from themselves, and are forever worried and irked that a same-sex homosexual will have feelings for them. This is part of the case of Bo’s challenge. After isolating himself from Mr. S, Bo loses speed in the pool, since he had to quit swimming on Mr. S’s Clark Fork University swim team. In addition, Bo hurts inside. Mr. Nak, a friend of Mr. S, informs Bo that Mr. S hurts also. Mr. Nak explains to Bo the importance of accepting the homosexuality. Bo soon understands that he should not judge someone’s sexuality by the picture in his head. He admits this is the problem, soon faces Mr. S, and thus recovers from his stereotypical crisis that could have cost him the swim portion of Yukon Jack’s Eastern Washington Invitational Scabland Triathlon.

        “One in five Americans has an anger management problem” (Ingram). This might have fueled Crutcher’s decision to base Ironman solely on Bo’s experiences with Mr. Nak’s anger management group and the evolution of the group into a circle of friends. Bo’s utilization of his training regime in order to calm his anger, whether he realized it or not, has been researched in reality. One group of researchers find it imperative to include regular exercise in one’s daily life not only to maintain physical stability, but mental health as well. “Not only does regular exercise improve physical problems such as high cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure, but it has distinct mood and cognitive advantages as well, including an ability to boost higher-level thinking and to combat depression and anxiety” (DeAngelis 49). Mr. Nak’s group pulled together in the end to encourage Bo, recording motivational tapes for him to play during the Yukon Jack triathlon. This is an alteration of group exercise also reported by DeAngelis. Group exercise will help to prevent termination of fitness programs (DeAngelis 49).

        Crutcher’s Ironman is packed full of information that provides readers with efficient self-improvement. The book itself is fiction, however, Mr. Nak’s lectures to his students should be applied in society. The cultural tests Bo faces are often shared by many individuals in their own journey toward goals or ambitions. Thus, through cultural analyses, one can better understand the purposes of Chris Crutcher in creating a fictional study of reality.