How we cite our quotes: (Chapter, Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Language, young Todd," he says, "binds us like prisoners on a chain. Haven't you heard anything from yer church, boy?" And then he says his most familiar preaching. "If one of us falls, we all fall." (1.33)
Here we get a good example of how Aaron is guilt-tripping Todd, feeding him the idea that guilt is a communal thing that you can't get away from. Poor Todd is alone (or so he thought), and his thoughts are invaded by his local preacher who tells him that his personal thoughts are contributing to the "fall" of his whole world. We can see why Todd ends up with a guilt complex.
Quote #2
Aaron's gonna die. [He tried to kill me, he wanted to kill the girl, he's responsible for the ruckus in town, he's gotta be the one who sent the Mayor to the farm and cuz of that he's responsible for Ben and Cillian. He deserves to die. He deserves it.
And I can't bring the knife down to finish the job. (8.77-78)
Once again, Todd's trying to justify killing Aaron. He tells himself that Aaron deserves to die because he's trying to kill them, but there's another part of him that can't bring himself to do the deed. Even though he knows he's justified, he feels guilty about the act of killing someone.
Quote #3
And I have my knife raised over Aaron. One more time, I've got my chance. One more time, I've got my knife raised.
I could do it. No one on New World would blame me. It'd be my right. (8.73)
Todd's confused about having free will and having the "right" to do something. First off, we're all pretty clear on the fact that Todd is allowed to protect himself, even if it means killing Aaron. But he's not sure; he can't decide whether this is something that's justified or not. And he's looking at it like it's a privilege to take another's life—not the fact that it's a matter of protection.
Quote #4
I look at the knife again, sitting there on the moss like a thing without properties, a thing made of metal as separate from a boy as can be, a thing which casts all blame from itself to the boy who uses it. (26.101)
One of the ways that Todd's guilt is represented is with the knife. The knife has the power to kill, and Todd struggles to separate this from the fact that he's actually the one who controls the killing. He may also use the knife as a scapegoat—telling himself that it's the knife that kills, not him.
Quote #5
And (no no no no no) I see the fear that was coming from his Noise—
And there's nothing left for me to throw up but I heave anyway—
And I'm a killer—
I'm a killer— (23.93-96)
Todd has a huge wave of guilt after he kills the Spackle. So though he's been told the Spackles are the bad guys, it seems like he instinctively understands this isn't true. Instead, it's the men who kill the Spackles who are bad.
Quote #6
"Go ahead, Todd," Aaron says and I swear I smell the dankness of him. "Cross over from innocence to sin. If you can."
I've done it," I say. "I've already killed."
"Killing a Spackle ain't killing a man," he says, grinning away at how stupid I am. "Spackles are devils put here to test us. Killing one's like killing a turtle." He widens his eyes. "Cept you can't do that neither now, can you?" (29.84-86)
Aaron pushes Todd's guilt buttons. Todd already feels like a killer, but Aaron is making his guilt about the Spackle seem meaningless and he's tempting him to commit a direct act of murder. Todd's already guilty and confused enough, and the lines of guilt around killing are becoming even more blurred.
Quote #7
He frowns. "I was wrong. I was stupid." He looks away. "I was willfully blind."
I remember his words comforting me about the Spackle.
We've all made mistakes, Todd. All of us. (36.103-105)
Ben teaches Todd an important lesson about guilt: It doesn't take doing something bad to be guilty; you can be guilty because you didn't do the right thing. Sure, Ben didn't murder the women, like his fellow Prentisstown men, but he didn't stand up for what was right, either.
Quote #8
"For the last boy to become a man," Ben says. "When boys became men, they were told the truth. Or a version of it, anyway. And then they were made complicit themselves."
I remember his Noise from back on the farm, about my birthday, about how a boy becomes a man.
About what complicity really means and how it can be passed on. (36.132-134)
Complicity is a word that gets thrown around, like guilt, and it means pretty much the same thing—only instead of being guilty by yourself, complicity means that you're guilty alongside other people. The curse of Prentisstown is that all of the members share the guilt of the crimes that they committed.
Quote #9
"You were the final test," Aaron says. "The last boy. The one that completes us. With you in the army, there's no weak link. We would be truly blessed. If one of us falls, we all fall, Todd. All of us have to fall." He clenched his fists and looks up again. "So we can be reborn! So we can take this cursed world and remake it in—" (41.80)
Prentisstown tries to make Todd guilty so that he fits in. Here, guilt is like a horrible initiation process—if Todd's guilty of one murder, then he can share the guilt of everyone else. For some reason, Aaron's trying to make it seem as if the town can re-define itself by the guilt that everyone shares.
Quote #10
"I think maybe everybody falls," I say. "I think maybe we all do. And I don't think that's the asking."
I pull on her arms gently to make sure she's listening.
"I think the asking is whether we get back up again." (42.60-62)
Here, Todd's finally coming to terms with what guilt means. Instead of guilt being about screwing up—which everyone does—it's about what you do after you screw up. The important part isn't the guilt you feel, then, but overcoming that feeling by making the situation better and moving past what you've done wrong.