Disingenuousness

Neal’s most prominent character trait, as well as his most prominent struggle, is his inability to be genuine with others; the story’s exploration of this internal dynamic serves as a hyperbolic meditation on the dangers and hardships of disingenuousness. Despite the fact that Neal’s perspective is portrayed in deep detail, the story pointedly presents Neal as an exaggerated manifestation of a problem that many people may face in a much more moderate fashion. Neal begins the story by directly stating, “My whole life I’ve been a fraud. I’m not exaggerating” (141). The story then proceeds to demonstrate that this statement is in fact true for Neal. He was never able to be fully honest or genuine with anyone at any moment in his approximately 30 years of life. While this problem rarely or never manifests to this degree in real life, the story...