Reading this out of context, does it sound hokey? Does it suffice as genuine character exposition?

>Flanagan reflected on the crew’s morals. It was the possibility that Captain Mortimer’s nonexistence would be more disturbing—that suffering and confinement were more agreeable to a majority of the crew than nonexistence, indicating that the will to life was an inescapable force; that pain was a meaningful part of the human condition. His moral conjecture stemmed from his own experiences. Boxing was his will to life, an escape from nonexistence. What blows and injuries he had endured, both physically and mentally, were necessary, for he needed strength to sustain his current station. Likewise, he acknowledged that the lives of the crew were driven by the thrill of movement and the desire for prosperity, and he recognized in this something inherently new—something uniquely New World that consumed all aboard the Rovina.