“Girls clung to my stand, like the shipwrecked to their raft, and I could do no wrong.”
In the “The Lifeguard,” by Mary Morris, the story’s theme is about ego and pride. In the beginning of the story we meet the main character and narrator Josh Micheals, who appears to be rather full of himself. Josh talks about the many girls that admire him, the gifts he receives, and the envy older people hold for his youth. One area in particular where we see just how much he believes that the world revolves around him is when he is convinced that Mrs. Lovenheim does nothing but watch him. In addition to that Josh also brags about how he has seen everything there is to see during his time at the beach, despite only being 18. He is the stereotypical young person who believes his youth will last forever and that nothing bad could ever possibly happen. Teenagers often have inflated egos, especially when they grow up good looking, being overly praised for mediocre things. As a result of his inflated ego Josh feels entitled to the things he believes he deserves. For example when Josh takes Peggy to the drive in movie and he decides he needs to know about the death of Peggy’s brother and asks about it in a rather rude fashion. While Josh may have completed the life guard training course, he was foolish enough to believe that, that alone could prepare him for anything. He holds his pride in false achievements, all he has is a title and some sunscreen on his face. No one is ever one hundred percent prepared, life tends to catch us off guard when our nerves have made us most vulnerable.