A Piece of Steak

Tom is the main character of “A Piece of Steak.” He is 40 years old and lives in an apartment in Australia with his wife, Lizzie, and their two children. Tom is a heavyweight boxer who used to be somewhat successful when he was in his prime. Now he’s old and tired, and his body hurts. He moves with slow, “hulking” steps, “as though he were burdened by the heavy weight of his muscles” (1). His knuckles are battered and his veins swollen. He has cauliflower ears, blue-black skin, a hard jaw, and a face covered with bumps from where he has received blows. In the ring Tom is savagely brutal, but in real life he’s not rough at all. In fact, he’s usually quite kind, and when he still had money coming in, he was generous to a fault.

Tom’s life now is marked by poverty. He is behind on rent payment and can afford neither proper training nor the steak he needs to eat in order to have the strength to win a fight. He recognizes that youth has passed him by and that youth usually wins in the ring.