The Setting Sun and the Rolling World

Julius is a boarding school student who makes a public defiant stand over the cafeteria food against the principal and headmaster, telling them, “I am not going to eat what you yourself would not willingly throw to your dog” (96). In a private meeting in the staff room, with the school’s 300 students waiting to learn his fate, the principal expels Julius, calling him “a dangerous element” (96).

Immensely proud, despite being kicked out of school, Julius struts to his classroom, where his classmates herald him as a hero. He is particularly happy to have impressed Dora, his deskmate on whom he has a crush. When the students ask what happened, Julius answers honestly, stating, “They just told me to go home and never come back” (95). The class is stunned until Dora laughs and says, “Oh, it’s only a joke” (95).

When the headmaster comes in to tell Julius his 10 minutes of goodbyes are up, Julius senses pity from Dora and the rest of his classmates, not the admiration he craves. Later that day, as Julius waits on the side of the road for a bus to take him home, he thinks to himself, “The only time he has ever been happy was when he was a school” (97), before erupting into tears.