How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #1
It seems that two office-boys in the building had worked upon his feelings by tales of injustice and oppression till they had wrought his compassion to the pitch of that frenzy. (1.14)
Apparently, Stevie lost one of his jobs in the past because two jerks working in his office got him all riled up about how badly the boss was treating them. So Stevie decided to go ahead and set off a bunch of fireworks in the company stairwell to show everyone how he felt about the situation. The problem is that poor Stevie got fired and the two office boys probably just laughed about the fireworks and kept their jobs. What this passage shows us is that Stevie really wants to help out other people. It's just that he's not all that bright, and people tend to take advantage of what a nice guy he is. This passage is really important for the book because it shows us early on that Stevie's niceness makes him an easy target for jerks who want to make him do what they want. Cue Verloc and a varnish can full of explosives.
Quote #2
Stevie knew very well that hot iron applied to ones skin hurt very much. His scared eyes blazed with indignation: it would hurt terribly. His mouth dropped open. (3.31)
As you might've noticed, Conrad isn't all that concerned about making his characters totally round and believable. In fact, he usually just makes his characters into symbols for specific emotions. In Stevie's case, were talking about compassion—a point that Conrad bashes us over the head with all through this book. More than any other character, Stevie takes the suffering of others and applies it to his own life. But this passage also shows us that Stevie's not exactly a Care Bear. Dude doesn't get sad when he hears about bad things happening. He gets really, really mad. This anger keeps him from being the simple little model of compassion we might want him to be.
Quote #3
"I had to take the carving knife from the boy […] He was shouting and stamping and sobbing. He can't stand the notion of any cruelty." (3.88)
Here, Winnie describes what a tough time she has trying to calm Stevie down once he's gotten himself worked up about the terrible things happening in the world. Again, we also get a pretty good idea of how ticked off Stevie can get when he hears about people being mean. Deep down, the poor guy thinks that the world is supposed to be a friendly place full of rainbows, hearts, stars, horseshoes and… well, that's Lucky Charms, but you get the idea. The fact that Stevies actually willing to grab a knife to show his anger makes you want to watch out for the guy as the novel continues.