This Boy's Life Guilt and Blame Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

"Even more than his anger, his righteousness scared me to the point where my stomach cramped up." (9.14)

"Righteousness" can possibly be translated as "willingness to blame Jack." That may suggest that Jack is less afraid of guilt than he is of getting blamed by other people… regardless of whether or not he did what they accuse him of. (Though in this case, he kind of did.)

Quote #5

"Dwight's bill of particulars contained some truth. But it went on and on. It never ended and before long, it lost the power to hurt me." (11.20)

Blame, it seems, can only go so far in Jack's world. If you use it too much, it just rolls off his back. That may be part of why Sister James' occasional "disappointment" hits him much harder than Dwight's constant badgering.

Quote #6

"In the past, I had been ready, even when innocent, to believe any evil thing of myself. Now that I had grounds for guilt, I could no longer feel it." (15.11)

Again, the guilt fails to seep in after being applied so thickly.