Theme of 'Man in the Well'

 Any poem, story or piece of writing mean nothing unless a theme is put in place. The only problem with a writing piece is having one specific theme for the reader to pick up on. The story “The Man in the Well” can be interpreted different ways; 1)within groups, people may engage in conduct that is wilder, stranger, or more uncivilized than their usual behavior when alone 2) even in their later years, people may have trouble forgiving themselves for the bad things they did when they were young 3) children are capable of conspiring with one another against the adult world. 4) ripple project their fears or suspicions onto others, even those who do not actually pose a threat to them. 5) children have difficulty sharing the perspective or another person. 6) people need to see one another's faces if they are to trust one another. 7) the psychological reality of children and adults is a deep well with in themselves that they cannot see into. 8)when dealing with an adult, even a helpless one, children may have in their minds images of parental authority that affect how they treat the person. 9) We should be more compassionate toward people who are trapped 10) children may fail to understand when an adult is in danger. The most accurate theme that makes the most sense to myself would be a combination of the first two. Though people may act out or unlike themselves in a crowd or with friends, they will regret the stupid and unthoughtful things they did in those groups.

The narrator says “I don’t remember if we told ourselves a reason why we couldn’t help him, but we had decided then” in paragraph two. This shows that they didn't have a legit reason to not help him but since they were young and stupid they just decided as a group to leave him and taunt him for fun. The ideal image or thought of young children is sweet and pure but as I read further I realized they were torturing this poor man. The only one that showed the least bit of compassion was Wendy when the narrator explained how she stayed beside the well when the rest ran off in paragraph eighteen. She too eventually ran off but that was because that’s what her friends did. This proves that people usually act out in a group to be part of it. She knew the right thing to do but decided not to because that's not what everyone else was doing.

The other themes that were suggested do not cover or explain the true meaning of the story. They are mostly just obvious observations that are points in the story. By sticking with the first two mentioned is the most accurate explanation of the message this story was trying to convey. Even though the narrators mother was upset about something (we can assume it has something to do with the man in the well) the narrator still doesn't care and does what the rest of his friends are doing. This is wrong but when you are that young you are still trying to fit in and you will do what ever it takes even if it is unjust or wrong.