And In The End... We Grow... By: Lorin G. Puckett Bullying is a huge problem in our country. Ages starting as young as five begin to bully In our society, we try to find ways to solve this issue, yet, as adults, we do not always catch it. ‘Thus, these children never seem to truly get the help they need. In the short story "Doby's Gone," Ann Petry produces a very innocent young gir! named Sue Johnson who has trouble growing up. Petry conveys this by using tone driven by dialogue, symbolism, and character development within her story. Innocent children get hurt and no one tends to be there to help, meaning that, everyone has to grow up at some point in life. Sadly, sometimes this happens to be at very young ages In the beginning of the story, we meet Sue who has just moved to Wessex, Connecticut. ‘As she is speaking to her mother about going to school we can conquer that she is of a young age by her choice of words, "You have to come with me mommy" (Petry 397). When Sue says the word "mommy" the reader can gather she is young and innocent because tough, older kids seldom use that name for their mother. Also, this use of dialogue gives a sense of clarity that the tone of this story is gentle because dialogue of this sort shows of a young kid. Usually, children are the image of innocence. Therefore, Sue gives off the sense of innocence and creates a certain mood of this story as the victim, The reader should know that childhood does not last forever, so she will have to grow up. Along with tone and dialogue, Petry establishes her point of writing this story through. symbolism. Her biggest example of symbolism is Sue's friend Doby who is not real. At the beginning of the story Mrs. Johnson was thinking that Doby would complicate things for Sue. “For Doby wasn't real, He only existed in Sue's mind. He had been created out of her need fora friend her own age" (Petry 396). The reader now knows Doby is an imaginary friend created for a reason, When Sue finally grows up a bit, he is gone as she gains a new friend. “Come oa, let's walk home together,” Daisy Bell said matter-of-factly”” (Petry 402). For Doby to be a friend and to disappear when Daisy befriends Sue shows that he was only there as aid for ber mental support. This use of symbolism provides the support that she grew up because he was easily replaced subconsciously when he wasn't necded anymore. Now, after her fight, Sue matured some and could handle herself, which is what Petry wanted to display. Though Doby is a huge factor in this story, the most notable transition would be the character development of Sue herself. From the beginning to the end of the story Sue grows up little by little. She begins by believing school will be a blast, then she finds that because she is different she is treated different, and she quickly realizes people can be very mean. "She decided she'd better hurry right home and maybe the children wouldn't see her...no one paid attention and she was so happy that she gave Doby's hand a squeeze" (Petry 401). With Sue being so innocent, she tries her best to avoid the bullies, and, for comfort, she squeezes Doby's hand. By the end of the story, Sue didn't need Doby because she could handle herself. "For the first time in her life he had left her, He had gone when she started to fight” (Petry 402). As soon as Sue grew a backbone, Doby left. Through the whole story Sue learns two valuable Jessons, which are that people are not perfect and that if you want things to change then sometimes you have to change