The town of Thalia is filled with boredom and loneliness. The characters reflect this with their actions. They are bored so they get drunk and have sex with a cow. Jacy wants to get out of this boredom so much that she tries to be with Duane and later Sonny trying to make a better image of herself while also trying to start some excitement and get out of this small dull town of Texas. The picture show is the most exciting thing in this town and it dies with Sam. "If Sam had lived, I believe we could have kept it goin'", says Miss Mosey. A lot of the memories of Jacy, Duane, and Sonny were from the picture show, this displays how dull and boring of a town Thalia was. Though almost all the characters in the book share some form of relationship, they are all lonely and searching for their true identity. Relationships and sexual experiences is the way of adventure and soul searching in Thalia. Jacy is searching for her true identity and her future. Her mother found true love with Sam, and Jacy wants to have a love like her mothers was with Sam. Jacy goes to the swimming club skinny-dipping nights at Wichita because she is trying to find her love and her self.Sonny is bored of his original girlfriend, Charlene, so he moves on trying to explore himself. We see through the book that he matures a great deal from a lonely weakling to maturing adult. He displayed his weakness characteristics and corruptibility when he could not stop his friends from getting Billy the prostitute when he knew that it was wrong. We see that he is weak even in the middle of the novel, as he could not handle the responsibilities of his secret relationship with Mrs. Popper. By the end of the novel he comes back to Ruth knowing it is the right thing to do and taking up his responsibility to her. Throughout the book he never realized that one action causes another. As Sam punishes him for letting the guys get Billy a prostitute he learns a cause and effect. When he starts dating Jacy and then marries her while he had been having the affair with Mrs. Popper he learns of responsibilities in relationships. He learns the needs in relationships from this and goes back to Ruth when Billy dies. He really finds himself and we can see him mature throughout the novel. Boredom causes many of the sexual adventures in the novel. Jacy is bored with her life with Duane and wants to experience more as well as have a better future. She goes to the swimming parties as well as the night with Abilene. Her mother tries to advise her on the ways of life and love. Her mother always remembers Sam as the one that got away from her. She "never would have...
