Development is an interesting word to use here, because it often implies that from the beginning to end, there is a noticeable, concrete change. However, the development of the narrator, the sequence of events which he experiences, ultimately leads to the a realization that he was the same as who he was in the beginning. In a sense, no development has been made. When the narrator becomes trapped underneath the manhole, he reflects on that. “Then I thought, This is the way it’s always been, only now I know it = and rested back, calm now, placing the brief case beneath my head”(566). As a result, you would not consider this a linear development; his circumstances do not improve in any way. Through his experiences and realization, he becomes more enlightened and undoubtedly wiser, but is ultimately left to a fate one could say he was destined for at the beginning. Being trapped in the manhole is clearly symbolic; for all his previous contributions to society, he is now invisible, trapped underneath the rest of the world, enveloped in blackness and forgotten.