About a Boy

Assignment for ”About a Boy”

Will goes to a single parent’s reunion and makes up that he has a 3-year-old son. This, among other things, shows us that Will is selfish and careless to begin with as he does not think about what children and being single means to those people. Another thing, which shows us that Will is selfish and careless to begin with is when Marcus comes to him searching for help and Will tells Marcus that he is not his son, hence he is not his responsibility. On the other hand, Marcus is very caring and generous since he does everything he can to make his mother happy. Even though he knows singing in front of the school will make the other students bully him, he still chooses to do it just to make his mother happy. Also, Marcus tries to make Will get into a relationship with his mother only because he thinks she wants and needs a boyfriend to feel happier and better. In his head, this might be what stops his mother from trying to commit suicide. At last Will becomes much more caring as he starts caring about Marcus and his mother. The way he helps his mother in need by coming for Christmas as it would mean a lot to Marcus and by telling Marcus’ mother he is here for her if she needs anything. Another thing we see at last is that Marcus becomes more understanding. He comes to realize the situation Will is in and the kind of man he is, so he stops pushing him to do things and starts understanding his way of living. For instance, we see this when Marcus comes to Wills house and starts doing the things Will does instead of talking about his own problems and deciding that Will should do something about it.