The novel presents a picture of friendship and love over several decades, complicated by patterns of both physical and emotional distance. In this paradigm, resentment and idealization—harboring negative feelings for others and treating others as imaginary entities, rather than real people—work hand in hand, contributing to the distance created between the Morgans and the Langs.

Larry at first idealizes the Langs for what they represent: a sophisticated, upper-class life apart from his own humble beginnings in New Mexico. Both Sid and Charity stand for a rarified idea of culture, breeding, and sophistication—everything that Larry is afraid he doesn’t have. At first, Sid and Charity intimidate Larry, but his opinion of the Langs changes as he gets to know them in both positive and negative ways. The argument is twofold: As Larry gets to know the Langs as real people, he is unavoidably disappointed at their failure to live according to the ideals he has pegged them to—or, in the case of Charity—put off by the cost of living according to these ideals. At the same time, as Larry grows more confident in his abilities and his anxiety wanes, his inferiority complex toward the Langs similarly wanes. This frame of independence enables Larry to see the Langs and all their faults.