Redhead by the Side of the Road

Micah’s bicycle from when he was 12 symbolizes the way Micah grows bored and finicky within his relationships. Lorna uses Micah’s treatment of the bike as a symbol for his treatment of her during their relationship’s rough patch. Micah “got [the bike] for [his] twelfth birthday, after [he] begged and pleaded” (162). But shortly after, he leaves it unattended at a park for hours on end and it gets stolen. Lorna questions how he could have neglected it after wanting it for so long. She says Micah was “noticing things wrong with it, like squeaky brakes or a scratch in the paint,” and so the bike “didn’t matter anymore” (162). This is the same way Micah begins to find fault with Lorna, as well as the rest of his girlfriends. As Lorna puts it, Micah no longer valued her. Micah’s flashbacks about his past girlfriends reveal that he did this same devaluation with each one. He refers to Zara as exhausting and recalls the “irritation he’d started feeling in Zara’s presence” (118). He also recalls annoying habits of Adele, and he says of Cass that “there’s a lot about Cass that he could find fault with” (172). Just like he was quick to let the bicycle slip away from him, Micah was quick to find ways out of his relationships when he lost interest in them.

A figment of Micah’s imagination, Traffic God symbolizes the way Micah feels validated in his sense of superiority among those around him. Micah tends to see his initial judgements as correct and believes some people “just didn’t have a clue” (24). While driving, Micah pats himself on the back for using his blinker, stopping smoothly, and obeying the speed limit through a character called Traffic God. Through Traffic God, Micah can validate his meticulous driving habits and give himself a sense of pride for his attention to detail. As the story unfolds and Micah begins to find fault with himself, Micah’s sense of superiority crumbles and Traffic God makes fewer appearances. Finally, when sitting in a traffic jam, Micah breaks a rule and checks a text, hoping it’s Cass. There is no mention of Traffic God. This shift represents how Micah has abandoned his sense of superiority, because he has recently discovered fault within himself through his breakup with Cass and conversations with Lorna.