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Beth Eggers
The oldest of the Eggers children. When Eggers’s mother is in the process of dying, Bill is already twenty-four and working in Washington, D.C. for the Heritage Foundation—Eggers, who has only a vague idea of what his brother does, describes Bill’s job as having “something to do with eastern European economics, privatization, conversion.” When Eggers, Beth, and Toph move to Northern California, Bill relocates to Los Angeles, where he works for another conservative think-tank. For the most part, Bill isn’t present very much, but he is a supportive older brother to all three of his siblings.
Bill Eggers Quotes in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius quotes below are all either spoken by Bill Eggers or refer to Bill Eggers. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
You know, to be honest, though, what I see is less a problem with form, all that garbage, and more a problem of conscience. You’re completely paralyzed with guilt about relating all this in the first place, especially the stuff earlier on. You feel somehow obligated to do it, but you also know that Mom and Dad would hate it, would crucify you […]. But then again, I should say, and Bill and Beth would say—well, probably not Bill, but definitely Beth—that your guilt, and their disapproval, is a very middlebrow, middle-class, midwestern sort of disapproval. It’s superstition as much as anything—like the primitives who fear the camera will take their soul. You struggle with a guilt both Catholic and unique to the home in which you were raised. Everything there was a secret—for instance, your father being in AA was not to be spoken of, ever, while he was in and after he stopped attending. You never told even your closest friends about anything that happened inside that house. And now you alternately rebel against and embrace that kind of suppression.
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Bill Eggers Quotes in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius quotes below are all either spoken by Bill Eggers or refer to Bill Eggers. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
You know, to be honest, though, what I see is less a problem with form, all that garbage, and more a problem of conscience. You’re completely paralyzed with guilt about relating all this in the first place, especially the stuff earlier on. You feel somehow obligated to do it, but you also know that Mom and Dad would hate it, would crucify you […]. But then again, I should say, and Bill and Beth would say—well, probably not Bill, but definitely Beth—that your guilt, and their disapproval, is a very middlebrow, middle-class, midwestern sort of disapproval. It’s superstition as much as anything—like the primitives who fear the camera will take their soul. You struggle with a guilt both Catholic and unique to the home in which you were raised. Everything there was a secret—for instance, your father being in AA was not to be spoken of, ever, while he was in and after he stopped attending. You never told even your closest friends about anything that happened inside that house. And now you alternately rebel against and embrace that kind of suppression.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
