“When you’re the sane brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your hands—the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet, And if you’re into both survival of the fittest and being your brother’s keeper—if you’ve promised your dying mother—then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a beer or a book. Get used to Letterman’s gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the indifference of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin—the guy who beat the biochemical rap.”

Dominick’s guilt at being spared the disease that affects his brother is immediately apparent. The diction here is typical of Dominick’s sarcastic tone, revealing the way in which he is often, though he may be unaware, full of self-pity at the burden he bears in caring for his brother.

“‘You know what I wish sometimes?’ [Joy] said. ‘I wish that you’d take care of me the way you take care of him. Because that would be a real nice surprise sometime, Dominick: being taken of a little by my own boyfriend. But that’s never going to happen, is it? Because I’m not crazy.’”

One of Dominick’s flaws is the way in which he prioritizes Thomas’s needs and safety above everything else in his life—including himself and other people. Joy complains, here, that her relationship with Dominick suffers because he does not give the energy to it that he gives to his brother’s care.

“Thomas emerges to the sound of hoots and applause. He’s so pale, his skin looks blue. At first, he smiles. Then his face crumples up. He begins to cry.

I feel bad for him. And mad. And humiliated. Kids are looking at me, too, not just at Thomas. The Birdsey brothers: identical twin retards.”

Dominick recounts the incident when Thomas accidentally locked himself in the bus bathroom on a school trip. Thomas was humiliated by the jeering of his peers but also frightened by the experience. Dominick experienced conflicting feelings: As Thomas’s brother and protector, he desired to defend Thomas and keep him safe from the jeers of other kids. At the same time, he wished for the approval of his peers and did not want to be associated with his maligned brother.