Howie: from an Adolescent Context

               The Mezzanine can easily be defined as a coming-of-age novel. While perhaps not showing all the conventions of the genre, the book does address the transition between childhood and adulthood and talks about the longevity and complexity (or simplicity) of said transition. The word “adult” itself is mentioned numerous times in the novel, and on many occasions, Howie mentions “adult” processes and the idea of being an adult. One of the most obvious addresses of “coming-of-age” is Howie's recount of his abrupt transition to adulthood at age twenty-three, while riding a subway to his workplace.

The Mezzanine seems even more coming-of-age-ish when considering the age gap between the start of Howie’s adult life and the lives of the students in our classroom. (I think I can safely say that most of the students in the class are under age twenty-three.) How do we, as adolescents, interpret this direct insight into adulthood? The general impression I got from my classmates during discussion was that it was depressing. Additionally, I heard a lot of comments outside of class that went along the lines of “this guy has the weirdest thoughts” or “Howie seems unimpressive”. Why is Howie’s adult life so unappealing to us?

             I think I can say that most of us want to be happy in adulthood – but what does this constitute of? This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think that many of us, as adolescents, do not truly think that our main goal is simply to be happy. I think, that when we’re asked, a lot of us would say that we’d like to be at least somewhat successful and loved and worriless, which constitutes our definition of happy. At the very least, we expect to have more “grown-up thoughts”.

            To some of us, Howie is the very opposite of this expectation. He does not think about his job – in fact, he thinks about anything and everything during the workday except for his job. Instead, he goes on and on about things like shoelaces and earplugs and his office building’s paper towel dispensers. His economic success then, is put into question. He is undoubtedly loved, yes, but not blatantly so (although I do think there are many subtle indications in the book that emphasize the strength of the relationships he has, especially between his father and L). Now, Howie can be categorized as worriless, but not in the way that we hope to be. He’s only worriless in the sense that he doesn’t think about anything remotely worthy of being worried over. Look at him! our expectations go, crossing their arms and turning up their noses. He isn’t thinking like an adult – he spent the entire day degradation of shoelaces and the development of plastic straws! And it is depressing to many of us to think that this is all that awaits us: triviality and whimsy, the exact opposite of our oh-so-desired-for grown-up thoughts. This is not what we want to be like at all – even Howie admits that this is not the type of adult that he thought he would be. 
            And yet, Howie is happy (or at least, this is what the 5^th hour class decided on). Howie is enthusiastically and thoughtfully going through life! The entire book is peppered liberally with exclamation points, and his seventh most common subject of thought is “sunlight makes you cheerful”. Those topics that we deemed as trivial are of absolute fascination to Howie – he very avidly muses on the subject of shoelaces and vacuum cleaners with a sense of mounting excitement. To an adolescent reader, Howie seems to have a rather anticlimactic adult life, but in Howie’s mind, every facet of life is art, is history, is innovation, in some small way. Every single thing is worth perusing. And while we may not necessarily want to be Howie, is this kind of thinking not somewhat admirable? Is this not the mind of a true thinker, a true creative?
            Perhaps we are the ones who have skewed expectations, and Howie is meant to be the true aspiration of adulthood after all. And perhaps not. Either way, I think this book has great potential to change the way adolescents think about adulthood, and I am glad this is included in at least one high school curriculum.