The Body of Christopher Creed Society and Class Quotes

Poor Chris… he just didn't get it. Or did he? The more we learn about Chris, the more we understand how desperately he needed to believe that he wasn't an outcast. Otherwise he probably would have gotten really depressed. It was his optimism and blindness to truth that allowed him to carry on with life.

For some reason, the kids in Steepleton thought it was okay to beat Chris up because he was different, despite the fact that he'd never done anything wrong or hurtful to anyone. Perhaps if someone had stood up for Chris, this might've changed because their violence would have been less socially acceptable.

Some people feel like they don't fit into the majority group and then do things that make them stand out even more. Like Ali. Maybe nobody actually hated her, but that isn't important—Ali's been feeling like an outsider and this makes her think that others see her the same way.

After Ali begins to feel different from her friends as her life at home changes so much, she begins to show it by changing bits and pieces about her appearance. It might be an outcast identity, but it's also something Ali's laying claim to.

Not fitting in isn't always about big differences that make it impossible for someone to get along in a group, like having vastly different politics or something. Becoming an outcast can be about tiny, stupid, unimportant things, like the color of someone's shoes or what brand of backpack they have. And Torey was a part of the indiscriminate majority who had no hobby to identify them but gossip.

In an effort to try to understand how people deal with hardship, Torey comes to the conclusion that hardship and stress lead people to do whatever they can to survive, and this includes lying, stealing, fighting, and acting mean, even if they aren't actually mean.

With his new-found super-power as an understanding character, Torey reads Lyle's mind and sees that all outcasts want the same things: friends, acceptance, love.

Finally it is Torey's turn to question himself. Is he now the outcast? Then again, he decides not to care about what people think of him, so maybe the answer doesn't actually matter too much.

Ugh. Renee is the worst, right? Even after it's made clear that the body Torey finds belongs to Bob Haines, Renee garners a following her believes her assertion that Torey and Bo killed Chris. Sometimes people band together for good reasons, but sometimes it's just over a shared love of sensational gossip.