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Peer Pressure and Social Acceptance
Seth wants nothing more than to be accepted by Adam. He dresses like Adam and imitates Adam’s cool attitude toward rules and authority. Seth feels good that a cool guy like Adam lets him hang around. Adam, in turn, applies peer pressure on Seth to get him to buy cigarettes illegally and to try smoking for the first time. Adam makes Seth uneasy when he pretends to throw a rock at a car passing below the bridge. Seth knows Adam could have caused a serious accident. However, he resists his urge to leave. Seth becomes uncomfortable when Adam grins after flicking the cigarette butt and hitting the black car’s windshield. Again, he questions Adam’s recklessness, but he sticks around until it’s too late to escape. The pressure to stay is too great.
Ironically, Adam equally desires acceptance by a peer. He projects an image of cool manliness to impress Seth. For example, he brags about getting into fights but skimps on giving details. Similarly, he shows Seth how to smoke cigarettes even though he himself doesn’t inhale. When he reveals himself to be a fraud at the story’s climax, Adam tries to salvage his image by saying he will find the bullies and “get them” for Seth. But it is too late. Seth has seen that Adam has lied to earn his admiration. Seth rejects Adam, no longer feeling the need to be accepted by him.
Betrayal
Seth and Adam have an unequal power dynamic in their relationship. Adam does most of the talking and controls where the pair goes and what they do. Seth acquiesces because he longs for Adam’s friendship and admires Adam’s cool masculinity. Because Adam portrays himself as a tough guy, Seth assumes that Adam will protect him if legitimate trouble arises.
In their friendship, Seth naturally expects that his loyalty to Adam will be reciprocated. Friends are supposed to have each other’s backs. When confronted by the bullies, Seth refuses to betray Adam to them. Adam, by contrast, betrays Seth immediately, shifting the blame from himself. Remarkably, Seth takes the bullies’ abuse without betraying Adam in turn. Seth shows greater integrity than Adam.
As the husky guy shoves Seth’s face into the car’s windshield, Seth wonders, “Where was Adam?” Adam’s failure to defend him is an additional betrayal since he earlier claimed to have beaten up an older, bigger boy. Adam’s worn and torn leather jacket supposedly provides evidence of hundreds of fights, yet Adam does nothing. These final betrayals seem to hurt Seth more than the bullies’ violence. As Adam lies to cover up his cowardice, Seth’s only words are, “Why’d you point at me?”
Masculinity
Seth feels insecure in his masculinity. He idolizes Adam for his perceived manliness. In Seth’s mind, a man should be like Adam, cool and emotionally detached, willing to fight for little cause, rebellious, and successful with women. A man should smoke and dress like the rebels in the movies. But Seth feels beset by emotions he deems unmasculine, including fear, shame, and anxiety. He has never been in a fight and has never really kissed a girl. He has never smoked and feels like a fraud for wearing his new denim jacket. Readers are privy to all of Seth’s feelings of inadequacy.
Although readers do not have access to Adam’s thoughts and feelings, they can infer that Adam’s lies are seated in his own insecurity. Adam wants Seth to see him as cool and manly. Adam is young and small, so he claims to beat older, bigger boys in fights and to be irresistible to women. He smokes and dresses like a rebel. But when he faces the consequences of his reckless behavior, he falls short of the fabricated masculine self-image he projects.
The bullies in the black car also display insecure masculinity. Rather than ignore the cigarette that hits the car’s windshield, they confront the younger, smaller boys and assault them. In their minds, men do not tolerate disrespect and must use violence to assert their dominance.
