How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #7
At the bottom of his pockets his incapable, weak hands were clenched hard into a pair of angry fists. In the face of anything which affected directly or indirectly his morbid dread of pain, Stevie ended by turning vicious. (8.92)
Here, we find out directly from the narrator that Stevie's compassion has the ability to turn vicious. When he can't think of any way to stop the cruelty of the world, Stevie gets extremely angry. The image of clenched fists in his pockets shows that he might wish he could go all Bruce Banner on us and turn into the Hulk. But the mention of his "incapable hands," reminds us again that Stevie doesn't have gamma radiation powers (sigh), and he probably can't cause real change in the world.
Quote #8
Shame! […] That little word contained all his sense of indignation and horror at one sort of wretchedness having to feed upon the anguish of the other—as the poor cabman beating the poor horse in the name, as it were, of his poor kids at home. (8.101)
Like Michaelis with his manuscript, Stevie is always struggling to put his compassion into words. He's always trying to get a handle on the badness of the world, and he feels the only way he can do this is to put the badness into language. However, there's a pretty stark contrast between Stevie's efforts, which usually result in jumbled phrases and words like "Shame," and the efforts of Conrad, who gives us hundreds of pages of really sophisticated writing. Through this contrast, we get a constant reminder of how limited Stevie is in his abilities, despite how strong his compassion might be.
Quote #9
At Stevie's appearance [Mrs. Neale] groaned lamentably, having observed that he could be induced easily to bestow for the benefit of her infant children the shilling his sister Winnie presented him from time to time. (9.13).
Poor Stevie's compassion makes him very easy to manipulate, and there are few (if any) characters in this book that aren't willing to take advantage of him. In fact, there isn't really anyone in this book (other than Winnie and her mother) who wouldn't manipulate Stevie at the drop of a hat. Sure, Mrs. Neale has children at home and a crummy life, but the narrator isn't all that sympathetic to her. The only message you can really take from her is the fact that the world is a very rough place, and everyone is always struggling to get as much as they can for themselves.