Dead Man Walking Guilt and Blame Quotes

The big, big mistake Prejean makes in the first half of the book is that she doesn't reach out to the victims' families as soon as she starts working with Pat. She feels guilty about this throughout the book. It's worth pointing out, though, that this is the first time she's been a spiritual advisor; why didn't the organization that asked her to be a pen pal give her some guidance? Guilt: there's always enough of it to go around.

Prejean isn't sure why she feels guilty about the victims, but then she realizes it's because she's aligned herself with the killer. Guilt here is a tool. All those self-help books that tell you to forget guilt and fly and be free? Yeah, that's not where Prejean is coming form. For her, as a Catholic, guilt's a way to examine herself, to figure out what she's done wrong and how to fix it.

Pat is very remorseful about his crime—which makes him sympathetic. Robert is way less so, which makes it harder to feel sorry for his fate. It's easier to feel guilty about hurting someone who feels guilty about the harm they've done.