Main Theme: Guilt

One of the main themes in Compound is guilt.  Eli feels guilt often.  Guilt is felt when he thinks about how his twin brother Eddy didn't make it to the compound before the hatch was closed and locked.  Eli's family had been camping and when they got back in the RV Eddy started wheezing.  Terese admited to bringing her kitten; Eddy was allergic to it.  Their grandmother offered to go back to their house and get his allergy medicine.  Earlier that day, their father told them that tomorrow he would flip a coin to see which boy would get a ride in his new airplane first.  Eli wanted to be the one to go first so that night he said to Eddy, "Hey Eddy. I heard Dad and Gram talking.  They said they have another surprise back at the cabin for us.  What do you think it is?" (175). Eli knew Eddy loved surprises. Eddy snuck out to the car and hitched a ride back to the cabin where they planned to stay over night.  Then everything went wrong. Eli's dad screaming at them to go when they woke up, pushing them into the compound. And Eddy...Eli never saw him again.

Another time Eli feels guilt is on his birthday.  He is in a bad mood and just wants to be left alone.  When he goes in the movie room to wtch a DVD, Lexie is already there, watching her own DVD. Eli pulls her DVD out of the player and wrestles her out of the room saying,"It's my birthday...so why don't you watch this in your room?" (33).  Later he thought about his outburst and realized he was wrong.  He felt guilty about being mean to Lexie because he knew that all of them were feeling the loss of Eddy.  After all,it had been Eddy's birthday too.