Redhead by the Side of the Road

Throughout the story, Micah is stuck in a rut of never reevaluating the things around him or correcting his misconceptions. This is represented through Micah’s regular mistake of confusing a fire hydrant for a little redheaded child every morning on his jog. The way Micah repeatedly sees a child instead of a fire hydrant illustrates how Micah struggles to change his own perception of things, even when his assumptions are proven incorrect or out-of-date. This is one of the things Micah works to overcome throughout the novel, but it takes several significant misconceptions for Micah to finally grow from these mistakes. The primary catalysts for this growth are Micah’s breakup with Cass and his interactions with Lorna.

At the beginning of the novel, Micah is content with his relationship with Cass because “they had reached the stage where things had more or less solidified: compromises arrived at, incompatibilities adjusted to, minor quirks overlooked” (20). Micah believes they’ve settled into a system in which both are happy with the arrangement. With Cass, “there was no talk of marriage,” and Micah believes that “living with someone full-time was just too messy” (38). Because of these misconceptions, Micah does not recognize that Cass wants to move in with him. They initially agreed to keep their lives separate, so Micah believes that’s how things will continue to be despite their lengthy relationship and Cass’s changing circumstances. Cass recognizes that Micah is not changing. She accuses Micah of “[inviting] the nearest stranger into [his] spare room” in order to make it “awkward for [Cass] to move in with [Micah]” (65). Micah rebuts this, saying that this “never even crossed [his] mind”; he then accuses Cass of trying to “change the rules” (65). Micah is so taken aback by the thought that Cass wanted to move in, he becomes defensive when she accuses him of intentionally trying to prevent her from doing so. The misconceptions Micah has made about their arrangement lead to their breakup, as Cass realizes that Micah does not change his mind about things no matter the circumstances.

When Micah interacts with Lorna, he is again confronted by his own misconceptions, both about Lorna herself and about their breakup many years prior. Micah knows Lorna as a religious and principled young woman, who does not drink and is saving herself for marriage. He is unsurprised to learn that she works in legal aid helping people. However, he is surprised to learn that Lorna has a son whose father is unknown. Micah must reevaluate his perception of her when Lorna confirms to him that she “played the field” (106) after their breakup. She tells Micah she “worked at changing [because she] was a very narrow person back then” (108). After this, Micah recalls how acquaintances of his would tell him they’d seen Lorna “flitting about” (119) and drinking. Micah recalls how he’d replied that “Lorna does not drink” and maintained denial about her being seen with many different guys, thinking she was just walking with classmates around campus. This small flashback confirms that Micah was narrow-minded too and did not adjust his initial perception of Lorna when new information was presented. It was only when Lorna herself confirmed to Micah how she’d changed that Micah acknowledged and reassessed his misconceptions about her. Lorna also forces Micah to reconsider his part in their breakup. At the beginning of the book, Micah believes his relationship with Lorna was perfect until he caught her kissing another guy. Micah wholly blames Lorna for their breakup. However, Lorna explains that she had not intended to kiss the guy—the guy kissed her unexpectedly. She tried to tell Micah this when he’d confronted her, but “it was almost like [he] was glad of the excuse” (162) to get rid of her, adding that they were going through a rough patch. Micah doesn’t like her suggesting he was at fault and struggles to “adjust to this altered view of the past” (163). Micah’s interactions with Lorna force him to revisit his opinions and admit fault within himself and his perception of things. Once Micah acknowledges his misconceptions and faults, he is able to grow as a person and ask Cass for a second chance.