Peer Pressure in The Osage Orange Tree

Peer Pressure in "The Osage Orange Tree" "The Osage Orange Tree" by William Stafford tells a story of how peer pressure kept 2 people apart who wanted to like each other. The narrator of the story liked one of his classmates but was afraid to show that he liked her. He didn't have the maturity at the beginning of the story to go against peer pressure. Peer pressure was involved with Evangeline being shunned because she …

…missed an opportunity of permanently befriending Evangeline. Evangeline was poor, avoided, and made fun of. It is not until the conclusion of the story that the writer discovers how much Evangeline lked him. She "stole" from her bank to purchase newspapers from the narrator (373) in order to have an excuse to visit with him every day. He discoverd too late that the newspapers were thrown under the bridge and never actually read by her father.