In life, each person faces decisions that affect the rest of their lives, there are moments that define who you are and who you will be; it is in these moments that people learn to grow up. These moments teach individuals important life lessons. Throughout adolescene, young adults are faced with challenges that force them to grow up. The short stories, “Good People” by David Foster Wallace and “Wildwood” by Junot Díaz, are coming of age stories that show the importance of growing up. David Foster Wallace’s, “Good People”, shares the story of a young couple who learn that life is not simply black and white. Junot Diaz’s, “Wildwood”, is a coming of age story of a girl named Lola, who experiences universal struggles of adolescence and growing up. Sometimes an individual’s biggest
…show more content…
Sheri and Lane are good people because they are capable of even conceiving of a ‘right thing,’...” (Wouters). Lanes conflicted thoughts emphasize the theme of division and conflict. Lane thinks that there is only wrong and right, good and bad, faithful and not faithful, he is only able to see things in one light. Throughout the story he talks about things being divided, one against the other. For example, he imagines hell to be “... of two great and terrible armies within himself, opposed and facing each other, silent… two hearted, a hypocrite to yourself” (Wallace 257). Furthermore, Lane talks about himself as being frozen, unable to move. This feeling of being frozen refers to how Lane is frozen or stuck in his narrow way of thinking. Lane is frozen in his thinking of things as simply black and white, he is unable to see all the different shades of gray. With this in mind, the man in the gray hat is a symbol for a more open minded and diverse way of thinking. It can be inferred that, “The old man and the fisherman’s moment of contact and ‘grayness’... as a contrast to Lane’s and Sheri’s frozen black-and-white view of things” (Butcher). After Lane sees this man in the gray hat
Sheri and Lane are good people because they are capable of even conceiving of a ‘right thing,’...” (Wouters). Lanes conflicted thoughts emphasize the theme of division and conflict. Lane thinks that there is only wrong and right, good and bad, faithful and not faithful, he is only able to see things in one light. Throughout the story he talks about things being divided, one against the other. For example, he imagines hell to be “... of two great and terrible armies within himself, opposed and facing each other, silent… two hearted, a hypocrite to yourself” (Wallace 257). Furthermore, Lane talks about himself as being frozen, unable to move. This feeling of being frozen refers to how Lane is frozen or stuck in his narrow way of thinking. Lane is frozen in his thinking of things as simply black and white, he is unable to see all the different shades of gray. With this in mind, the man in the gray hat is a symbol for a more open minded and diverse way of thinking. It can be inferred that, “The old man and the fisherman’s moment of contact and ‘grayness’... as a contrast to Lane’s and Sheri’s frozen black-and-white view of things” (Butcher). After Lane sees this man in the gray hat