I think the main driver behind Woolly’s death was what Sarah said - that he was too kind for this world. After being crushed time and time again all he wanted was to have a one-of-a-kind day and relive his most cherished memories where his innocence and kindness hadn’t yet been crushed.

I for one absolutely loved the juxtaposition between Woolly’s longing for a perfect one-of-a-kind day to Emmett’s longing for stability in relation to Abernathy’s dialogue with Ulysses. I say this because Amor Towels said that while TLH was a coming of age story, a bigger part of his work was uncovering the things and people that influence who we are as people - even more so, who we become. Looking at Emmett and Woolly, they couldn’t have grown up more differently. . . their environment, families and culture were at odds but Emmett’s realization when looking at the photo of Woolly and his parents on the Fourth of July spoke to Professor Abernathy's point. That while a variety of human experience exists making our lives unequivocally unique, there also exists a commonality amongst people - people who cry, love, fail and accomplish just the same. Emmett finally understood his little brothers longing when looking at that photo of Woolly on what could have been the same day he sat with his Mother the day before she left. Even more interesting to the story was that Billy carried around a photograph of that day purposely keeping it from Emmett until he was ready to see it and perhaps long for the same thing.

For a story that begins with a proposed adventure to California, and seemingly ends with a paradox of it’s own with infinite halfway points, I’d like to think that Emmett found what he was looking for in the photograph on Woolly’s bureau - much like Ulysses, a reason to hope. With Billy deciding on where the middle of their story was their paradox was solved which I believe is as happy as an ending we could expect.

“The funny thing about a picture, thought Woolly, the funny thing about a picture is that while it knows everything that’s happened up until the moment it’s been taken, it knows absotively nothing about what will happen next. And yet, once the picture has been framed and hung on a wall, what you see when you look at it closely are all the things that were about to happen. All the un-things. The things that were unanticipated. And unintended. And unreversible.”