The Struggle

Biological Parallel

Salmon swimming upstream against current, leaping waterfalls, evading bears, while their bodies literally digest themselves for energy. The struggle isn't a metaphor—it's metabolic debt, muscle breakdown, and navigating lethal obstacles with depleting reserves. What makes it biological (not motivational) is that the struggle is finite and purposeful: reach spawning grounds or the species ends. Horowitz captures what differs struggle from mere hardship: existential stakes with a defined endpoint.