tom and cathy share one structure of being. they search but never find. they never solve what's wrong. they can't experience what they lack so they try to escape it.

adam being nursed by his stepmom as a child after being beaten only to find himself an adult nursing cathy after she was beaten with same care and intensity in same bed he laid in. what fundamentally connects these two events is his skewed perception of them. he falls for both while neither of them will ever reciprocate his feelings.

charles adam and cathy each crawl on ground in pain unconcious beaten at some point in the book. each trying to reach front porch stairs of one house.

another half-developed side character with bitter resentful affection deprivation and explosive head arc to add in my little box