relationship between black and white women

“The Man in the Well” by Ira Sher was a story about a couple of young kids who find this man in a well near where they live and decide to start talking to him. I think that one of the main themes in this story is identity. I believe that human beings are one of the most complicated species on this Earth. Human beings are so complex on how they think and act. When the children find the man in the well they very quickly seem to make a game out of it. They immediately decide not to save him and tell the man that “[their] dad is almost here” (Sher 118). The children made it known to not reveal any of their identities to the man, but the man soon learns their names and they lose their identities. Human Beings but I think more so teenagers think that it is okay to be mean or disrespectful to other people if the other person cannot see them or does not know who they really are, believing that it is less harmful or damaging. When the man was asking for help the children would just tell him lies to keep it going the man asked the children to “go get a ladder; get help” (Sher 4). Instead of going to get a ladder and help they just leave him there as if hes some toy and not a person that is in very urgent need of help. Another event that made it seem as if the children were playing a game is when Wendy says Aaron’s name, out loud and the narrator said “she’d broken one of the rules” (Sher 116).
Another thing that shows human condition in this story is making a game out of situations. The children a lot of times would just get up and run from the well as if he was coming to get them. “We got up and began running, filling up with panic as we moved until we were racing across the ruts of the old field.” They were very cautious when it came to the man seeing their faces as if, if he would seen them they would get in some sort of trouble. The narrator said that he was “combined with a feeling that he could hear everything [they] said, made him suddenly closer, as if he might be able to see us.” Aaron and all of the other children seemed to be embarrassed and not know how to feel about a lot of the things that happened. He wasn’t able to stop thinking about the man in the well during the night, dinner or in the morning during breakfast the thoughts of the man was killing him. All of the children in the story never really showed and exact reason why they didn’t help the man they “ looked around at each other and it was decided. I don’t remember if we told ourselves a reason why we couldn’t help him but we decided then” (2). Aaron wouldn’t want Wendy to talk to the man or he would give her a disappointing look when she would reply to the man. During a certain period, Wendy seemed like she felt ashamed for breaking some of the rules that they had made “ I could see it on her face. eyes filling with space as she moved back from the well” (36).
They never did anything else to attempt to help him from then on. Rather than getting some help for the man the children lied to him over and over again. They would answer almost every question that they were asked with “ no, we didn’t find one” (8) and when they were asked about about help Aaron on the spot would quickly come up with “ My father said he’s coming with the police and they know what todo” (28). The man is expecting Aaron, Arthur, Wendy and Little Jason to get help “ get a ladder, get help” (4 ) but the kids wouldn't do anything at all. The kids were asking simple questions like “Can you see the sky”(11) or “What’s your name”(6). This all has to do with curiosity, which was shown all throughout the story. The children kept trying to learn something about the man hoping that they would learn something new about the man. They would do this by asking simple, generic questions they thought that this would help them get information. This all kind of relates back to the children making a game out of the man. They got some sense of pleasure knowing that they could keep asking questions and maybe one of them would “win” and get an answer. The human condition is something that all people encounter in their lifetime. This story gives us information about the human condition.
The human condition is something that people will go thru in some time in your life. This story shows us things we wouldn’t even realize about human condition “ The Man In The Well” makes you really think, “What would I do in this situation?” you want to believe that you would immediately go get help but in actuality you would probably do the same thing that the children did in the story would.