Character Analysis
The champion of the railroads, Hoppie is the boxer that inspires Peekay to become one himself. Even though he only spends one day with Peekay, he changes his life by giving him hope and a goal.
The hope is the idea that "little can beat big." Hoppie beats the gigantic Jackhammer Smit after a hard fight, and it inspires Peekay to believe that he could someday beat the Judge and the jury, all the mean kids who torture him at school.
The goal is to become the welterweight champion of the world, and this is a task that Hoppie assigns to Peekay from almost the first minute he meets him. Peekay takes the quest seriously and dedicates the next several years of his life to following Hoppie's orders, with Hoppie's famous advice, "First with the head, then with the heart" (7.3).