Sympathy from Readers

In this last section, The Corner, the readers stop hearing a lot about Dick and once again begin to see Perry's upbringing and outlook. It seems that the more the reader hears about Perry's past, the more sympathy and remorse we feel for him. For example, when he writing his statement, he describes thoroughly, "He proceeded to beat my mother. I was frightfully scared, in fact all us children were terrified. Crying. I was scared cause I thought my father was going to hurt me, also because he was beating my mother" (274). This makes us feel bad for Perry because he had a rough childhood. It also shows the potential place where his anger and revenge towards people stemmed, along with another example that exemplifies his hostility. In this same statement, he goes into great detail about his encounter with the nun who used to beat him when he wet the bed at night. He informs, "I was very severely beaten by the cottage mistress, who had called me names and made fun of me in front of all the boys. She used to come around at all hours of the night to see if I wet the bed. She would throw back the covers and furiously beat me with a large black leather belt - pull me out of bed by my hair and drag me to the bathroom and throw me in the tub and turn the cold water on and tell me to wash myself and the sheets. Every night was a nightmare" (275). Just later, he continues, "This never changed my mind about her and what I wished I could have done to her and all the people who made fun of me" (275). This makes us feel sympathy for Perry because we continue to see the neglect he faced as a child and how it contributed to his future and his fatal position in the book.