The knife Pepé plays with behind the barn symbolizes his desire to be a man. The narrative reveals that the knife is Pepé’s inheritance from his father. It is a big, heavy knife—not a child’s toy, but a tool for providing for and protecting the family. While Pepé is eager to take on this responsibility, Mama Torres constantly reminds him that he is still a child.

When Mama Torres sends Pepé to the store, a job that partially fulfills the responsibility of a man to provide for the family, Pepé is overeager to assert his manhood and too quick to use the knife. As a result, he must begin his journey as a man prematurely. He is not prepared for what he will face but must depart nonetheless. When Pepé is well on his journey and finds that he needs the knife (i.e., the moment he needs to be a man), he finds that it is missing.

The clothing that Pepé inherits from his father is a symbolic representation of Pepé’s newly-acquired manhood, developing the themes of The Difficulty of Growing Up and