“See the family. Savor them. Soon, they will be destroyed. They destroy each other. They will destroy themselves. The world or fate or mysteries untold will destroy them in a little while, for the boy needs to travel most of this journey alone—and if does not need to (which, as the boy, would be my argument), then he will anyway.”

This quote clearly identifies the narrator, Casey Gerald, as traveling through his life alone. It accurately foreshadows the sense of loneliness that persists throughout the book and ultimately overtakes Gerald. In the last chapter, it will be Gerald’s recognition that he is not only unsure of his identity but also alone that seems to most propel him to make change.

“Besides, I was, through my twenties, addicted to Skittles, enough of which will have you strung out and broke and dead, too—and while that may seem like comparing apples to oranges, so to speak, addiction is addiction and it just so happens that we’ve built ourselves a nice society that places all the folks addicted to fame and money and complaining a little lower than the angels and, down below waterbugs and Hugo Chavez, places men and women who get high every now and then or all the time. Not that I’m endorsing any of it. I’m just not going to be the one to jump all over addicts we don’t like. At least not for being addicts. Daddy could have enjoyed all the heroin in the world for all I cared—I just wanted him to show up for my tenth birthday party and inform me of his visit to Dean’s so I wouldn’t be caught up in a lie.”

This quotation captures Gerald’s attitude toward his father’s addiction while providing an incisive criticism of socially endorsed value priorities. It is not necessarily clear exactly what Gerald believes addiction consists of, but it is clear that he views the addict more as a patient or a person employing a poor coping mechanism than a danger or moral failure. However, Gerald is also acutely aware of his father’s failures in parenting. His nearly dismissive attitude toward addiction, in this context, has the effect of holding his father personally responsible for his failures rather than blaming his father’s addiction, reflecting the idea that even inexcusable behavior has reasons.

“A boy in my fifth grade class, Mauricio, who must have also had some strange things going on in his life at the time. One afternoon, he decided to lie down for a while in the middle of the road. Mauricio’s plan was to lie there until a car ran him over, which would have worked if the first prospective car had not been driven by someone who noticed a small boy in the road ahead. […] Mauricio, who might have had the right idea all along, was struck with the paddle and doused with medication and, I bet, given another chance to try fifth grade—while I, his mad submissive counterpart, toed the line so well and for so long that somewhere along the way somebody said that I had a gift—a gift!—when what I had was more of a sickness.”

This passage aptly summarizes Gerald’s jaundiced view of his own abilities and his sardonic attitude toward his success and even life in general. Far from being boastful, Gerald suggests that he came to his significant academic prowess partially out of his discomfort and desire to please those in authority.