The Other #6

As the story culminates with the death of John Williams and the endowment of millions of dollars to Neil at the time of his friend's death, Neil struggles with the new life of an incredibly wealthy man. His perspective on life becomes paranoid and unsure because of his new found wealth, as is seen when he says, "Move away. And not just out of town, We're talking out of state, possibly out of the country. You can't expect to keep a lid on your secret forever; information wants to be free. Maybe buy a modest house with a good alarm system in a gated community with a private security force" (211). The fear that is evident by this type of talk shows how the sudden wealth that Neil has come upon really does not help him, but only makes his life more complicated. Also the fact that this money has come out of the death of a good friend causes more misgivings about his situation. However, although his life has been permanently altered materially, Neil's state of mind, especially when it comes to money, barely changes. His invariable attitude about money is evident when he is faced with the decision of whether or not to by a pair of reading glasses and says, "They were under $10. I'm guessing- I haven't calculated it- that I made at lest a hundred times that in interest during the time it took me to decide to buy the glasses" (212). This refreshingly frugal attitude from such a wealthy man shows how especially for Neil, no sudden happenstance of "good fortune" can change his identity as a person.

During the time after John's death, Neil takes a trip to visit John's father and apologize for being what he thought was the cause of his friend's death. After understanding that there was something gone awry with the Williams family, the testimony of John's father gives us such a clear image of the dysfunction that surrounded John's upbringing. Rand Williams, John's father, places the full blame of John's volatile nature and death on the boy's parents. Rand's summary of the blame lies in his statement, "I was mum in the face of Virginia's mental illness, and that was just a terrible mistake" (219). The recurrent motif of bystanders allowing wrong to happen is made especially clear when Mr. Williams is so transparent about his failure to stop his wife from essentially, abusing their son. This abuse that supposedly lead to John's death is described in detail throughout the chapter. In addition, the dysfunction of both mother and father that caused this abuse is apparent when Rand describes an argument that he had with his wife over whether or not she strangled their baby son when he recalls, "She wouldn't admit to what Rand suspected: that her frustration had flowed over; that she'd momentarily strangled John William... 'why is it I'm still defending myself? I won't do it a single moment longer! Go pour yourself a Dewar's and sit on the patio! Go read your sports news! Go!' He gave up" (232). Only a completely dysfunctional woman would strangle her own son, and likewise, the same dysfunction applies to a father who would not take charge of the situation. In light of this kind of upbringing, we see how badly John Williams was hurt by his parents, eventually leading to his death.