Creation of the Self

The author uses the evolution of Connell and Marianne's relationship over the course of three formative years to explore the ways in which one individual might influence the changing shape of another. By establishing Connell and Marianne's complicated friendship in high school, the author is able to follow them through a succession of crucial coming-of-age moments. As the two teenagers move from their insulated hometown realm and into their lives at college. However, whenever they return to the patterns of their early relationship, even at times when they are merely proximal to one another, the friends seem to revert to a default sense of self. The author uses the third person point of view to allow the reader to map Connell and Marianne's habits and modes of operating independent and dependent of one another. Whether the two are together or apart, the narrative...