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.