In the story "Peaches", Reginald McKnight introduces his main characters, including Marcus. Marcus is a good guy, but he is portrayed in different ways, due to his confidence and insecurity. Throughout his work, author Reginald McKnight takes great care to illustrate situations and describe the feelings and personalities that many men experience. In this way, even though Marcus has difficulty controlling himself around others and is sometimes arrogant, he always tries to be a better person for Rita and for himself. He does this by going out of the country to experience other cultures and improve his morals. On the one hand, Marcus demonstrates that he is incredibly confident, on the other hand, he shows signs of insecurity, manipulation, instability and inability to achieve change. Marcus' actions continually demonstrate how confident he is. Whether he's next door or across the country, Marcus always has his eyes on Rita because he sees her as _______. While he claims "to have had relationships with black women, Hispanic women, and Asian women" (75), believing that his experiences with other women make him instantly capable of understanding Rita. Because of ______, Marcus thinks that such an understanding of Rita would be ________. He wants to be with her so much that he can't see her as an individual. For Marcus, past experiences are enough to maintain a healthy relationship. According to Marcus, he had "experienced this before" (75) and told Rita that she could tell him anything, thinking it had to do with a cultural gap. In fact, Marcus told Rita, “You can tell me. I think I would understand” (75). [What is he referring to here?] His confidence, coupled with his need for recognition and approval from Rita, makes his confidence...... middle of paper...... manipulative and unstable. In creating a character who is so confident, insecure, manipulative and unstable, Reginald McKnight also creates a character that we can empathize with. McKnight created the feeling that Marcus was a confident individual, who stood out from society, but in doing so, he set himself up for failure. Where the one woman who could make all the difference began to fear him. Once that happened, everything went downhill as soon as Marcus started dismissing Rita's response at one point. Whether he was fully aware of it or not, Marcus built walls around himself and avoided talking about his personal life with any depth. This makes us aware that negative remarks and statements can lead to a very negative outcome. We are forced to draw our own conclusion and conform to the fact that no matter how far away a person is, he will never change..