I found the ending of the novel very interested. Throughout the autobiography, Wole has always experienced the world through his own eyes, made his own opinions, and developed his own story. I find it intriguing that at the very end, he is instructed to not wear the shoes. This entire "story" has been very well crafted and almost Cinderella like, compared to the other books we have studied so far. Wole has had his way, or at least, been able to be his own person, and at the end his dream of completing his school outfit is crushed.
The last paragraph says, " 'No shoes,' I sighed, feeling the oppressive weight of my years. It was time to commence the mental shifts for admittance to yet another irrational world of adults and their discipline." Wole is exhausted from his control on life, and the weight of attempt to be older and smarter is falling down on him. Wole has spent his whole life trying to be older, and understand the world around him, all he has wanted is to be an educated young man, with the complete office. We have already seen him attending school with his new math set and books, and finding himself at the bottom of the chain. Not wearing shoes, makes him fit in more, but Wole has never been that kid.
Without shoes when he attends school, Wole is like Cinderella without her glass slipper.
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I honestly did not think much about the "no shoes" line at the end of the novel. However, I enjoyed reading your perspective of the ending. Wole is definitely a character who is not like other kids his age. He does not understand the logic behind which adults make decisions even though he is constantly trying to act older than he really is (which is not really his fault because he was submerged in an environment where people were usually older than him). I thin that the "shoes" line is probably another reference to the fact that he still does not why adults say certain things but he must follow them because ultimately, they have more control.
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