Throughout the story, Micah is stuck in a rut of never reevaluating the things around him or correcting his misconceptions. This is represented through Micah’s regular mistake of confusing a fire hydrant for a little redheaded child every morning on his jog. The way Micah repeatedly sees a child instead of a fire hydrant illustrates how Micah struggles to change his own perception of things, even when his assumptions are proven incorrect or out-of-date. This is one of the things Micah works to overcome throughout the novel, but it takes several significant misconceptions for Micah to finally grow from these mistakes. The primary catalysts for this growth are Micah’s breakup with Cass and his interactions with Lorna.

At the beginning of the novel, Micah is content with his relationship with Cass because “they had reached the stage where things had more or less solidified: compromises arrived at, incompatibilities adjusted to, minor quirks overlooked” (20). Micah believes they’ve settled into a system in which both are happy with the arrangement. With Cass, “there was no talk of marriage,” and Micah believes that “living with someone full-time was just too messy” (38). Because of these misconceptions, Micah does not recognize that Cass wants to move in with him.