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The Sailor-Boy's Tale | Themes

Coming-of-Age
This is a ‘‘coming-of-age’’ story, in the sense that Simon’s experiences function as a rite of passage, from boyhood to manhood. Simon’s development, over the course of the story, begins when he is a ‘‘small’’ boy, rescuing the falcon from the mast. Two years later, at seventeen, he has significantly matured, physically: ‘‘Simon had been small for his age all his life, but this last winter he had grown, and had become strong of limb.’’ Yet, at this point, Simon is still a boy. However, the acts of killing a man (Ivan) and kissing a girl...

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