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Analysis Of The Treasure Of Lemon Brown

Decent Essays

Essay Analysis: The Treasure of Lemon Brown
By: Lauren Davis

Why does this title have a peculiar title to it and what is it about? The short story “The Treasure of Lemon Brown,” by Walter Dean Myers, is about a young boy named Greg Ridley who really struggles with school. At the time he was fourteen and failed his math class. His father would always give him lectures about how failing in school is not okay and in turn isn't aloud to play basketball. One day he got so mad that he ran away and ended up in some old run-down building with graffiti all over it. Greg has four big coming of age moments all throughout this story. Coming of age moments are big moments that happen in life. His first big moments is failing his first math class. …show more content…

Greg has two different scenarios when he operates in his ego. In the ego, the main concepts it focuses on are self esteem or self importance. He knew at first that he should of started to study but instead, he walked out of the house down the street, and, “Stood to go upstairs, thought of the lecture that probably awaited him if he did anything except shut himself in his room with his math book, and started walking down the street instead,” (Myers 1). The second time he performed in his ego was when he doesn’t know wrong from right, “His father’s words, like the distant thunder that now echoed through the streets of Harlem, still rumbled softly in his ears,” (Myers 1). He doesn’t really know whether to study or run away, study or play basketball, trespass or not trespass.
The superego is the morality principle where a person feels responsible towards society. It also blocks out aggression and can cause guilt. Greg operated in his superego when he returned home, “He thought ahead of what his father would say and wondered if he should tell him about Lemon Brown. He thought about it until he reached his stoop, and decided against it,” (Myers 8). He didn’t want to tell his father about Lemon Brown because he didn’t want to get in even more trouble or another lecture, “Greg pushed the button over the bell marked Ridley, thought of the lecture he knew his father would give him, and smiled,”

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