Wilson does not give the boy a name, but he does describe how the preteen is taken with Penny. The boy appears to be obsessed with Penny rather than infatuated. When he first tries to talk to her, he digs through her garbage to find the model car Penny threw away and attached a note to it in an attempt to force her to have a conversation with him. Robin Romm, author of the article “The Little Explosions of Man”, states that, “Wilson’s true gift is for depicting the dangers of strong, complex emotions.” The extent the boy went through just to communicate with Penny foreshadows unsafe events that will occur between them. When they began to talk, Penny finds herself drawn to the adolescent and she begins to become infatuated with him. She forms her first relationship with the adolescent because she can connect with him and feels comfortable. He accepts her for who she is. Wilson emphasizes Penny’s feelings of isolation throughout the story with her mother and the cheerleaders. He writes about how Penny had to pretend and put on an exterior in order to be liked, but she isolated herself in the process because she could not be comfortable with herself until she was at home alone. Yet when the boy shows up, she makes this deep bond with him because Penny could be herself around him. Penny does not have to pretend to be someone else or do something to make them
Wilson does not give the boy a name, but he does describe how the preteen is taken with Penny. The boy appears to be obsessed with Penny rather than infatuated. When he first tries to talk to her, he digs through her garbage to find the model car Penny threw away and attached a note to it in an attempt to force her to have a conversation with him. Robin Romm, author of the article “The Little Explosions of Man”, states that, “Wilson’s true gift is for depicting the dangers of strong, complex emotions.” The extent the boy went through just to communicate with Penny foreshadows unsafe events that will occur between them. When they began to talk, Penny finds herself drawn to the adolescent and she begins to become infatuated with him. She forms her first relationship with the adolescent because she can connect with him and feels comfortable. He accepts her for who she is. Wilson emphasizes Penny’s feelings of isolation throughout the story with her mother and the cheerleaders. He writes about how Penny had to pretend and put on an exterior in order to be liked, but she isolated herself in the process because she could not be comfortable with herself until she was at home alone. Yet when the boy shows up, she makes this deep bond with him because Penny could be herself around him. Penny does not have to pretend to be someone else or do something to make them