"You feel like you know me, Cady, but you only know the me who comes here," he says. "It's—it's just not the whole picture. You don't know my bedroom with the window onto the airshaft, my mom's curry, the guys from school, the way we celebrate holidays. You only know the me on this island, where everyone's rich except me and the staff." (39.14)
Cadence doesn't make an effort to know Gat outside of Beechwood—to do so would mean a serious shattering of romantic illusions. But can you really love someone if you only know them in one context?
Quote 2
"There's nothing Heathcliff can ever do to make these Earnshaws think he's good enough. And he tries. He goes away, educates himself, becomes a gentleman. Still, they think he's an animal." (39.26)
In Wuthering Heights, Catherine says of Heathcliff, "I love the ground under his feet, and the air over his head, and everything he touches, and every word he says—I love all his looks, and all his actions, and him entirely, and altogether." Kind of sounds like Cadence talking about Gat, no?
"But the thing that makes me really messed up is the contradiction: when I'm not hating myself, I feel righteous and victimized. Like the world is so unfair." (52.23)
Even when you're as brilliant as Gat, you can't help internalizing prejudice. Plus, hanging out with Harris Sinclair would probably give you an inferiority complex, even if you were the whitest, blondest person on earth.