But I couldn't have prevented any of it" (270). He even goes as far as to say it was somewhat Lois's fault for what happened. "She pushed me She knew I was attracted to Ada Your mother almost made me feel that something was wrong with me if I didn't have an affair" (270). While he is a realist and recognizes that everyone has their faults, this becomes a problem for him when he refuses to take responsibility for his own actions. .
Luann, the neighbor girl who befriends Marsha, shows behavior throughout the story that also presents a very dark side in another family in the neighborhood. She is a very unhealthy girl for her age. She has mutilated the Barbies that she plays with, cutting off their hair, drawing all over their bodies, sticking pushpins in their eyes. Marsha describes the Barbie saying, "The other doll, however, was a magnificent sight. Luann had cut of all its hair, exposing the roots in its plastic skull, and completely tattooed its body with different colors of Magic Marker. She had drawn snakes around its arms, made its breast into red-and-black targets, given it a verdant bush of green pubic hair surrounding a brown phallic blob. The face was colored half black and half purple. Pushpins stuck out of both eyes" (158). She also demonstrates knowledge of sexual behavior, telling Marsha that a boy's "thing" looks like a thumb. It is made very obvious that Luann has either been abused or witnessed very violent and sexual interactions in her home. .
Marsha also encounters feelings of her own that she is ashamed of. When she is thinking back to her memories of Boyd Ellison she recalls an instance where he was mutilating a praying mantis. She sees them doing this across the street and goes over very interested in what they are doing. Here she reveals some very odd feelings: "Stomach heaving, I drew closer and stared, wanting to get even closer, to peer right into those alien eyes.