There are many stereotypes associated with Appalachian origins, which Townsend and Pollock use to their advantage so that their characters' interactions have a large impact on their continued development. Every child wants to make his parents proud, either by succeeding, by pursuing his parents' dream that he was never able to achieve, or by committing an act, good or bad, that his parents ask him to do. In Saint Monkey, Audrey and Caroline are heavily influenced by their father's decisions and the resulting consequences, which also relates to Bobby and his father in "Real Life". Ben Pfeiffer, editor of The Rumpus, concludes from an interview with Townsend a key reason for their friendship's suffering: "Audrey Martin and Caroline "Pookie" Wallace, misfit childhood friends, begin to drift apart along the different life paths” (Pfeiffer TheRumpus.net). Townsend writes, “…we must all follow our daddies’ dreams” (Townsend 192). Audrey writes this to Caroline; move away and pursue her father's dream, while Caroline is forced to stay at Mt. Sterling to take care of his sister because his father killed his mother; consequence. In "Real Life", Pollock creates a similar scenario with Bobby and his father. Bobby is influenced to commit an act of violence by his father's command: "Stand back, I'll beat your ass" (Pollock 95). The only two options available to Bobby are: beat the kid or get beaten up. No child wants to be abused, so the logical thing to choose is to fight back: consequence. The developments of the three characters are created as a result of their actions: Audrey grows up