A bird must break the egg shell to be born into the world. Its egg is the world of the bird. The passage is from Demian, still many people quoting it. The fact that one can be born only if the one breaks the egg isn’t only applied to birds. Every birth is a result of fighting, and growing up is not different from being born. When a person grows up, people express that as ‘the person is reborn’. It’s because growing up is also a result of fighting. People pierces, breaks, and crushes the obstacles they see to go ahead, and all of the process is the fighting. It’s the process of getting out from the old world to enter the new world.

The webtoon Wind Breaker is a story about growing up of the young, and it honestly records the history of the fighting. The main characters are students of Sunny High School. They have their own story. The characters - Jay who walks his way of life in spite of pressure from studying and his parents, Minu who is living a twisted life as a son of his rich father, Dom who is the son of a gang leader, and Vinny who is treated as a problem child - gathers in the riding crew Humming Bird after many twists and turns. Then they participate in a street riding competition.

 

Riding a bike may seem to be easy as they push pedals to go forward, but it has a complicated structure in its detail. Especially, how to deal with resistance of the wind makes differences in velocity or in the feeling of going forward. It’s more than about how good the bicycle is, and it’s about the terrain and how one overcomes the wind by using oneself. For your information, the basic information on riding a bike is well arranged in the webtoon, so it would be a good choice for the readers interested in riding.

Going forward by using the environment, it exactly explains their story of growth. They were like a crude patchwork at the beginning, but they get the strength to go on as they begin to feel fellowship and friendship. Jay gets the courage to do what he wants free from his parents, Dom gains true friends, Vinny finds an escape and the energy to go on again, and Minu obtains an opportunity to overcome his trauma. That going on by using the terrain means the people who begin to occupy their environment. The teacher who helps their passion in the place of other than studying, the friends who cheer for them, and the friends who share the starting line are the ones who give the strength to go on against the wind.

 

No matter how a good bike a participant has, the one cannot win all the competitions. In the webtoon, many people collect expensive bikes, but not all of them wins a competition. Especially, it’s not easy to gain victory against Jay, the ace of humming bird. The way Jay ride is reckless and ruthless as the readers think riding is his instinct. He has capability to make another road from the road he heads without hesitation, and it’s not an instinct, but his belief in himself.

 

In one’s adolescence, more than the people in the environment affect the young, the young affects much on oneself. Thus, the story of growth of Mia is valuable in the context. She doesn’t ride for herself, but she slowly recovers her self-esteem as she watches riding of the humming bird crew and Jay, the center of the crew. In riding, the rider himself is important as much as the environment. The belief one can do it, and the will to make it is the very strength moving the bike and delivering the rider to the finish line.

 

Minu whose legs are no more moving, Dom who rides a bike for the first time, Vinny and Jay who fell from their bikes all raise their bikes again to run to the finish line. They don’t give up even if their defeat is obvious. It’s the strength coming from oneself, rather than given from others. The bird breaking an egg may be affected by hardness of the shell and the temperature, but it is impossible without will of the bird itself to break the egg and go out into the new world. The young must break their eggs and grow up, because it’s the image how they’re consumed in the market and they’re required to do so.

The webtoon Wind Breaker makes the young characters grow and go on, in its traditional and solid story. One may gain courage from their looks of pushing pedals through the wind, and another may get interested in riding a bike. The webtoon Wind Breaker can be found in Line Webtoon, on Monday.