Silent Requiem

Even the way in which he is shot tells the audience much about his role among the group. Charles, intoxicated, and convinced Henry is planning to kill him, confronts Henry at the hotel with a gun. Francis provokes him by throwing some wine at him, Henry lunges at him. In the chaos, Charles shoots, and the bullet strikes Richard in the abdomen. Richard has spent the novel narrating himself into the heart of this beautiful, tragic circle, but when tragedy finally reaches its climax, he's reminded—by a bullet—that he occupies a different position than he imagined. Richard's narration often gives him an almost mythic importance. We experience the entire novel through his consciousness, so it's easy to unconsciously elevate him to the center of events.

But the events themselves keep undercutting that idea.

The bacchanal happened before he arrived.

Bunny's murder is planned primarily by the others.

The group's oldest relationships predate him.

The final confrontation isn't about him.

This is the very philosophy by which Richard Papen operates. Richard isn't simply an innocent victim or an unreliable narrator who's lying to the audience. He is frighteningly self-aware (He literally admits his fatal flaw yet still romanticizes the story). He admits in the first chapter that he is a liar. He can't keep from constructing fun narrative and is aware of the image he wants to project. Furthermore, his defining trait isn't "whiny." It's passivity. Richard spends much of the novel allowing things to happen because captivated by beauty, exclusivity, and the idea of belonging. This is interesting as the group itself does not accept him. They constantly test him to see if he's truly a part of them. Francis in the beginning when he asks "Cubitum Eamus?" Other than the obvious innuendo, Francis is testing Richard to see if he is truly a Latin scholar, a part of them. Then, there is the more obvious scene between Henry and Richard in which he tests Richard's lies. "“You're a Homeric scholar?” I might have said yes, but I had the feeling he'd be glad to catch me in a mistake and he would be able to do it easily. “I like Homer,” I said weakly. He regarded me with chill distaste. “I love Homer,” he said." Again, the members of this group are actively testing him and his place among them. Richard went to extreme lengths to assimilate to them, most notably when he lies to the psychology professor and gains $200 dollars from it. He then uses it to by a tweed coat. This tweed coat becomes symbolic to Richard's attempt to assimilate to the group. He even wears the coat in the scorching heat, establishing that his need to portray a certain image was his top priority. He makes this so much his priority that he even romanticizes his own life. He writes his own myth. Even his miserable childhood becomes a part of the story. And even that can't be trusted. Rather than portraying him as an "outsider", Richard is often portrayed as someone who is desperate to be chose. That desperation explains why he tolerates things most people don't.