The earliest poem chronologically is "Pete Goes to School", which occurs when Pete is 5 years old.
"Pete Gets in a Fight" comes next, showing us the misadventures of a 7-year-old Pete.
Pete is 10 at the time of "Pete Goes for Bread."
"Pete Gets a Job" occurs when Pete is 14.
"Pete Falls in Love" also features a 14 year-old Pete, but occurs after "Pete Gets a Job"
"Pete Goes into the World" shows us a more mature, 18-year-old Pete.
Only by considering these poems chronologically and searching for the meaning in them can the reader hope to understand the message that Pete has for us. The Pete poems provide an excellent pessimistic way of looking at the world; it is thoroughly believable and offers no hope of redemption or escape whatsoever. To see the message of these poems, it is more helpful to look at Pete as Everyman, as opposed to studying him as an existentialist antihero, which may be the reader's first impulse (although some interesting conclusions may be realized by following this impulse...)
-W McD.
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