Undoubtedly the main person who unknowingly helps the boy along the path of maturity is Mangan's sister. She is the boy's crush. Whenever he sees her, he follows her wherever she goes. This is strange because the boy admits to hardly ever speaking to her, and he does not know her name. He even pulls up the blinds so that he can watch her. These points show the boy's immaturity, but such can be expected from a boy his age. He thinks about Mangan's sister and visualizes her image everywhere he goes. He idolizes her as an angel. She seems to become a symbol of what he is living

With the help Mangan's sister, the boy's uncle, the priest, and the girl at the bazaar, the boy learns how to be a mature adult. The lessons that those characters have taught the boy will forever change him, as well as the reader, because of the many scenes of maturity, love and rejection. Joyce has captivated a diverse audience of readers that ranges from young, free-spirited kids to old, atrophying adults because of his astounding ability to relate the story to them. This story of the process of maturity will, in no doubt, teach the boy to never again chase after beauty alone, because if he does, he will once again wind up empty and detached with no meaning left in his life.

The last character, which aids the boy in developing maturity, is the girl from the bazaar. The girl at the fair gives the boy a taste of reality and what it is like in the outside world and only speaks to the boy because that is her job. The boy is never directly described as liking the girl, but from the boy's reaction to this event, he doesn't seem like he is used to being turned away like the results from this encounter. The girl from the fair could quite possibly be the main maturing factor for the boy. He learns that not everyone in his life will have the caring personality and congenial attitude like that of his aunt. The girl is perceived to have left the biggest and longest-lasting impression on the boy, as is evident in the last few lines of the short story where the boy says, "...I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity."

Another one of the characters who aided the boy in the development of his maturity, was his uncle. The boy's uncle is a symbol of the boy's father figure. The boy's uncle always seems to be stressed with the difficultie

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Approximate Word count = 1188
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)