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Study Guide
Spider-Man Coming of Age
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Coming of Age
HARRY: Can we drive around the corner, please?
NORMAN: Why? The entrance is right there.
HARRY: Dad, these are public school kids. I'm not showing up for the field trip in a Rolls.
Harry is at that age where he desperately wants to fit in, and it's hard to fit in when you roll up to a class field trip in a $300,000 chauffeured car.
FLASH'S CRONY: Jesus, Parker, you are a freak.
Peter's glee turns to confusion and concern.
HARRY: Peter, that was amazing!
After Peter uses his spidey skills to beat up and humiliate Flash, he's stoked. Then he realizes how thoroughly weird it was for everybody watching. Well, everybody but Harry. Peter is a freak if he does and a freak if he doesn't.
PETER: Quit worrying about me, okay? Something's different. I'll figure it out. Stop lecturing me, please.
UNCLE BEN: I don't mean to lecture, and I don't mean to preach. And I know I'm not your father.
PETER: Then stop pretending to be!
When Uncle Ben tries to empathize with Peter and dole out some useful advice, Peter is in full-blown teen angst mode. Instead of listening to Uncle Ben, Peter explodes on him. That "stop pretending to be my dad" part? A brutally low blow.
PETER: I can't help thinking about the last thing I said to him. He tried to tell me something important, and I threw it in his face.
AUNT MAY: You loved him, and he loved you. He never doubted the man you'd grow into.
Here's the thing: Peter may have been a huge jerkwad the last time he saw Uncle Ben, but as Uncle Ben was trying to tell him in that moment, Uncle Ben was a teenager once, too. He knew how hard and all-around confusing it can be to be a teen. Aunt May knows that, too.
PETER: That's great, M.J. You're doing it. You're living your dream.
Enrique comes out of the Moondance and yells at M.J. from across the busy street.
ENRIQUE: Glamour girl! Your drawer was short $6! Next time that happens, I'm gonna take it out of your check! Excuse me, Miss Watson? I'm talking to you! Hey!
MARY JANE: Yes, Enrique! Okay? I get you.
ENRIQUE: Well, it better not happen no more, you hear me? Don't roll your eyes at me.
Mary Jane opens her coat to reveal her waitress uniform.
MARY JANE: Some dream, huh?
Mary Jane is embarrassed that her big dream of becoming a Broadway star hasn't panned out yet. But she and Pete have been out of high school for, what, a few months? C'mon now. Growing up doesn't mean giving up on your teenage dreams, but it does mean realizing that you're actually going to have to work for them.
MARY JANE (sarcastically): Thanks for sticking up for me, Harry.
HARRY: You heard?
MARY JANE: Everyone heard that creep.
HARRY: That creep is my father, all right? If I'm lucky, I'll become half of what he is, so just keep your mouth shut about stuff you don't understand!
While Peter and M.J. are growing older and wiser and becoming more independent after graduation, Harry is still stuck under his dad's thumb.
PETER: I'm so sorry, Harry. I know what it's like to lose a father.
HARRY: I didn't lose him. He was stolen from me. One day, Spider-Man will pay. I swear on my father's grave, Spider-Man will pay.
Harry may think he sounds like, well, Dirty Harry here, but he doesn't. He sounds like a kid.