Human beings, being self-aware and sentient creatures, generally need a solid reason for existing other than just surviving. Whether it’s caring for loved ones, being cared about by loved ones, or contributing to society in general, normal people need a place in a community of other people to give their lives meaning, or they would probably go insane. Most commonly, many people often go through an identity crisis at some point in their lives, either from searching for a way to define themselves in society or from going through a major change in what previously defined them. Sarah Boyle experiences a crisis in her identity because of a lack of any purpose in her life. The inability to peruse her ambitions and contribute to society leads her to feel as if she is useless and there is no meaning to her existence,…show more content… Constant contemplation stemming from her wasted education continuously shapes her life and the home that she is trapped in.
The fact that Sarah Boyle is highly intelligent and well educated is made clear in much of the first few paragraphs and subtly implied to the reader throughout the duration of the text. A description of Sarah further portrays her intelligence "Sarah Boyle is a vivacious and intelligent young wife and mother, educated at a fine Eastern college"(9). It is undeniable that Sarah Boyle exhibits an extremely scholar like personality, demonstrating very pronounced analytical skills and a highly advanced vocabulary. In different inserts, Boyle continuously presents vocabulary such as "Heat Death of the Universe. The second law of thermodynamics can be interpreted to mean that the ENTROPY of a closed system tends toward a maximum and that its available energy tends towards a minimum"(19) and "Ontology: That branch of metaphysics which concerns itself with the problems of the nature of