When Lavinia failed to notice him, his passion did not wane but was transformed. Embers of adoration and desire smoldered but what sprang up were flames of anger and self-loathing.”
-- Narrative Focalization on Chandin (Section 1, Chapter 2 paragraph 3)

Importance: This passage marks a major shift in Chandin which precipitates his angry descent into violent self-loathing. When he feels slighted by his adoptive sister, failing to realize that she is in love with Sarah, he interprets her dislike of him as a failure of his ability to truly assimilate to Wetlandish whiteness and Christianity. This anger and self-loathing are channeled into Chandin's mistreatment of Sarah, and eventually boil over and manifest themselves in his violent sexual abuse of Pohpoh and Asha. His repeated sense of rejection, stemming from this moment, compounds his belief that he has been wronged and that he has been denied something owed to him, leaving him feeling justified to take what he wants from Pohpoh by...