Coming of Age

Through the character of Lucy, the author comments on how one cannot be truly happy until they become comfortable with themselves and learn to love themselves for who they are. Lucy starts out as a rather pathetic character. He is prone to brooding, and must tell himself lies in order to cope with the tedious nature of his monotonous life. But the novel is, in part, shaped like a Bildungsroman, and, true to form, Lucy’s character undergoes a drastic transformation from start to finish.

In the beginning of the novel, Lucy is a coward. When Memel and Mewe appear in the night and proceed to rob the passengers of the train, Lucy pretends to sleep so as to avoid a confrontation. But, by the time the novel ends, Memel’s influence has turned Lucy into a man who is capable of murder. Not...