Theme statement: Affluence can foster materialism, thereby creating a life devoid of meaning.
             Seymour shows great sensitivity when communicating with youths, but lacks the ability to communicate with the money-oriented adult world. We first meet Seymour on the quiet beach of a Miami resort hotel. Sybil approaches Seymour. Seymour treats young Sybil with the utmost respect and kindness. He is very sympathetic to her youth and tries to communicate with her in the context of a child. When he speaks of the "Little Black Sambo" he speaks as though he is the same age as her, showing his excitement and surprise with the amount of tigers in the story. Seymour seems to understand the pains and struggles of being young. When Sybil becomes jealous of Sharon Lipshutz for sitting with him on the piano bench, she tells Seymour he should have pushed her off of the piano bench. He says "Oh, no. No. I couldn't do that...I'll tell you what I did do, though,"(13). She questions him and he replies that he pretended Sharon was Sybil. He carefully goes about explaining the situation that angered Sybil, rather than brushing her anger off as a childish nuisance. In many of his statements Seymour shows that he isn't satisfied with adult awareness, and more subtly mentions them to Sybil. "'Where's the lady?" Sybil asks. "The lady?' the young man brushed some sand out of his thin hair. 'That's hard to say, Sybil. She may be in any one of a thousand places. At the hairdressers. Having her hair dyed mink. Or making doll's for poor children in her room,'"(12). Here Seymour displays thoughts of his wife's lack of meaningful activities. Communication is defined as the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior-and Seymour is no longer capable of this activity with the adults he is around. Seymour's scene in the elevator about his feet shows that he feels threatened b
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