The story, seen through the eyes of a young boy, is also a coming of age story. The boy is puzzled by Shane and his hidden violence, who is beyond his sheltered experience, but comes to trust, love and venerate him. Times book editor Jack Miles wrote that “What makes ‘Shane’ different, what makes it a classic among Westerns, is that it is a story told by a boy. Schaefer understood...that the Western is an American boy's dream of the world as it should be.”