Capitalism

Boy Staunton is a highly successful capitalist. People—particularly on Ramsay’s faculty—attack him, but Ramsay is a friend of his, and he sees the value in Staunton’s work. Chiefly, he benefits from Staunton’s recommendations for investments, which help him take care of Mrs. Dempster. They also subsidize his travels in search of saints to write about. Capitalism is not really described as an economic system, but as a way of life, and Ramsay describes it as corrupting to Boy Staunton’s soul. The power he gets from his wealth makes him careless about other people’s feelings, and he does not feel the guilt Ramsay carries with him, over the snowball incident.

Guilt

This is the thing that distinguished Boy Staunton from Ramsay: Ramsay empathizes with Mrs. Dempster’s sufferings, and takes his role in the snowball fight that injured her very seriously. His...