There comes a time in everyone's life when they have an experience that allows them to age and transition into adolescence. In Virginia Sneve's short story, "The Medicine Bag," Martin learns a valuable lesson about judging others by realizing what a true Native person is. Furthermore, he understands that his assumptions about his friends' attitudes were inaccurate. Martin also moves from a phase where he was only thinking about himself to thinking about others, as he notices when he begins to think about his grandfather's feelings. The protagonist, Martin, definitively moves from childhood to adolescence, as he comes of age and transforms into a more mature and competent individual during his grandfather's visit. In the story, Martin uses stereotypes and comparisons to label people, but he matures as he understands an individual should be defined by their actions, not by clothing, appearance, or status. For example, Martin reveals that he never showed his friend's grandfather's portrait because "his grandfather wasn't tall and majestic like the Indians on TV" (Sneve, 1). He compares Grandpa to the “ideal” Aboriginal people depicted on television and has an idealistic view of Aboriginal people. He believes that to be Native you have to look a certain way and dress a certain way. Through his limited perception, he concludes that Grandpa is not Native simply because he doesn't look like one. Furthermore, when Martin offers his friends a drink, no one responds because they listen attentively to Grandfather telling the story of “how he [killed] the deer his vest was made of” (Sneve, 5). Martin begins to feel proud of his grandfather. His friends, who he said would make fun of Grandpa, would enjoy Grandpa's company and would list... middle of paper ...... idual. He realizes that people are more than a label, and that stereotypes don't define who you are. He also understands that his friends would enjoy his grandfather's company rather than making fun of him. He transforms into a much more sympathetic person, as he begins to think about his grandfather's feelings, rather than his grandfather's. This visit provided Martin with the rich experience necessary to enable him to come of age and appreciate his precious heritage. Through this experience, Martin looks at the world from a different perspective and finds that “the margins of life offer a unique experience, but there is a. it's time to see what [life] looks like from the dance floor (Chbosky). »Works citedStephen, Chbosky. The perks of Being a Wallflower. 2012. Internet.