The Nature of Responsibility

The primary, defining events of the narrative (the party on the roof, the illicit party in Dumbarton Hall, the climactic confrontation during the game of "I Never"), as well as many of the secondary events in the individual characters' story lines, are all grounded in an experience of irresponsibility. In the case of the first two incidents, characters break the rules of the school, designed to place students in a position of behaving WITH responsibility. In the case of the third and, in fact, in several situations throughout the narrative, characters break the break the rules of relationships (see "The Tension between Honesty and Secrets" below), acts of irresponsibility that, in almost all cases, result in regret or pain or anger, and sometimes all three. In other words, the characters learn the nature and value of responsibility as the result of a sharp, jarring experience...