Roderick is the only person who sees the brothers as his equal.
"We could've perished in the storm,
for all she cared. Was that not
murder?
LRC sees them as less important - she knew how bad the storm
was yet sent them out in it. Highlights that she believes they're
below her and her family.
"We're human beings just like them."
Highlights that they're being treated
with lesser respect. Also that the higher
classes do not believe they are similar -
yet Neil suggests they are.
"They were to be like insects,"
Dehumanising them - they are at the
bottom of the societal food chain. Insect -
suggests insignificance, metaphor of
physical smallness highlights symbolic
smallness
"Yonder's a house with fifty rooms... every one
of them three times the size if our hut and
nearly all of them empty."
Sense of unfairness - Neil's envy of the rich and his
hatred of being poor. Rich vs. Poor - they have
much room to spare whilst the brothers have no
space at all.