Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor align people to onions, for people contain a "multilayered nature of personality" that be broken down and picked apart. When unpeeling an onion, there are many layers to take off. There is also no guarantee for a perfect onion on any part. Mother Nature does not have this in writing; nor do Shaw's Supermarkets. An onion is certainly not all positive aspects either. Onions, to note, are infamous for making people cry. These tears are a result of the peeling and processing (chopping and cooking) of our onions. .
This peeling and processing extends to contributing of peeling and processing of others" onions is the main plotting of Altman and Taylor's Social Penetration Theory. The theory is applied to the [potential] development of two people getting to know each other. Social Penetration Theory itself is an unfolding theory that predicts the unfolding of individuals. With linking itself to reward/cost, the theory idealizes that two people can develop a relationship in a "gradual and orderly fashion from superficial to intimate levels of exchange as a function of both immediate and forecast outcomes" (Griffin, 133). The outcomes are the reward/cost predictions, both initially and consistently, which will guide the two people into a level of closeness.
The levels of closeness discussed are the steps to "ultimate" intimacy. It must be remembered that this is not referring to sexual intercourse, but more on a friendship level. To repeat, the nature of the onion stays relatively pure. As the onion has both inner and outer layers, people feel each other out to express and learn about their layers reciprocally (in the ideal) from each other. However, one may not reciprocate by choice consciously or subconsciously or by a matter of incidental overlook. The onion is not always peeled identically, or for that matter used for cooking either. .
One guarantee can be proclaimed other than there being no other real guarantees concerning the onion in action: as the onion is layered so are the individual's steps in developing a relationship.