Nothing Left To Prove

"Nothing Left to Prove"

Dave, the narrator in "The Quarry," in my opinion, has learned a great deal about not having to prove himself to others. The narrator in the story is now thirty years old and he explains a flashback he is having of when he was fourteen. He fell into the peer pressure of his friends making him feel he had to jump into the quarry, which he and his friends considered to be a place of adventure, because it was forbidden and dangerous. "The Chair" was the highest point to jump from into the water. The narrator speaks of the fear he felt standing on the chair and looking down at the water that was far below. He recalls the shouts of his friends down below urging him on, and how he finally does jump. In my opinion, there was no point in jumping from the chair. However, at this time in the narrator's life, he and his friends considered jumping from the chair to be "...a kind of proving ground for manhood" (p.12). Did it really prove anything though? I believe that anyone can fall into the pressures of jumping, but it's those who don't jump, that prove their manhood. I also think the narrator realizes that through the years that he has grown into an adult.

The narrator feels he has nothing more to prove; now that he's thirty. His friends though, still feel that they do. His friends still try to urge him to jump, but Dave is happy and secure with his life and his wife who loves him, and he feels he has nothing to prove. So this time instead of falling into the peer pressure of jumping, he says "No, thanks...Go for it. I'm enjoying myself right here" (p.13).