From the novel’s first page, readers quickly understand that Mark is a strong character: He’s clever, determined, and persistent through his illness and the obstacles he overcomes. However, Mark constantly feels like he needs to prove his strength. He doesn’t want people to see him as a pitiable child who needs everything done for him. Throughout the story, Mark strongly correlates strength with independence. For example, when Mark, lonely and broke, evaluates how to catch the next shuttle up the mountain, he thinks, “I could ask the hikers to give me some money. But I didn’t want to. I was doing this thing, all the way. I didn’t need anybody’s help. I didn’t want anybody’s help” (95). The success of Mark’s mission depends on his ability to complete the journey by his own strength and wits. To ask for help is to admit failure, so the only options he gives himself are to succeed or die trying.

However, Mark doesn’t anticipate his independence feeling so lonely. The diner waitress is a character who attempts to show Mark mercy after hearing him vomit his dinner in the bathroom, which prompts Mark to storm out. Even though Mark spends the entire diner scene feeling anxious about blending in and annoyed over the waitress’s gum-smacking habit, he looks back at the restaurant and thinks, “It was a place with sound and people, a place where life just kept going on.