Brent has a strange dream about halfway though the novel that makes a deep impression on him; he cannot shake the awful feeling it leaves him with all day. He dreams that he is "driving a station wagon and [he's] going up to the top of a waterfall because [he's] got to get rid of these bodies. [He] killed them" and he feels such deep regret, yet he doesn't "remember why [he] did it" (174). This was a very strange dream for him to have because it's not as if he's being very violent or active in his current state. I think it must have been the guilt he feels for hurting so many people around him when he only really meant to hurt himself. This must have been the reason for his guilty feeling in his dream, that so many people have been affected by something that he never meant to drag on for so long. It was just a spontaneous decision and action and he didn't think of the consequences. However, now that he is faced with the consequences and has no option but to accept what he has done to himself and the people around him, Brent realizes that he has no only burnt himself but also his family and friends that he never wanted to hurt.
This train of events reminded me of a movie that one would not usually relate to a story about an eighth grader setting himself on fire, though it does contain a burn book. Mean Girls tells the story of a young girl, Cady, who comes into a new high school and is trying to fit in. She starts sitting with the popular girls because she's pretty so she fits in. It was just a small action on Cady's part that she thought was very harmless. Soon however, everything spirals out of control and she begins acting horribly and saying horrible things. In the end the entire school is involved and it all started from one little action that evolved in a way no one would have expected, much like Brent's situation.
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