"I Want to Know Why": A Reality Check

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Recommended: Coming of age in popular literature

Sherwood Anderson's "I Want to Know Why" shows how a young boy realizes that his role model is not who he thought would be. The boy had just turned fifteen and had a passion for thoroughbred horses. His small town of Beckersville was filled with men who owned farmland and raced horses, his friends were just as passionate as he was.

The boy and three of his friends from Kentucky went on a trip alone to see a horse race in Saratoga.. Before the race began, he wandered down to see Sunstreak, a beautiful thoroughbred, and knew for a fact he would win the race hands down that day. The boy admired Sunstreak's trainer, Jerry Tillford, for his patience with the horse and had a weird sensation when the men made eye contact. The feeling was stronger than what he had for his own father and felt the world was revolving around the three of them; the boy, Jerry Tillford, and Sunstreak. The night after the race,that Sunstreak did win, the boy saw Jerry Tillford drive off and began to walk in the direction the car went in hopes to see his hero. When he reached the farmhouse where the trainer was, he was shocked at what he saw through the window. His hero was talking in such an ugly way, bragging about the race and claiming it was him who made that horse. The boy was outraged and returned home wondering how a man of his presti could stoop so low. The boastfulness of his voice, the bragging, the drunkenness, did not seem like the characteristics a trainer would have of such a beautiful horse. The boy was appalled.

The author portrays the young boy in this story as naive, he is young and unaware of the behavior that others such as the trainer have. The boy's pure and blissful attitude changes dramatically from the beginning of the story to the end where he doesn't even feel the same toward horses anymore. For as long as he could remember he knew he wanted to work with horses, it was what he loved. The young boy first wanted to be a rider, but he was growing awfully fast and would do anything to stop growing, even eating a cigar to stunt his growth. When that obviously didn't work, the boy decided he wanted to be a stableboy.

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