I forgot the details in earlier chps but how I read the author's intention and msg is MC h...

I forgot the details in earlier chps but how I read the author's intention and msg is MC has always had unstable attachments to parental figures, and here comes this externally perfect person who gives all material needs. MC is confused and doubtful, this parental attachment gives him insecurity because what does mc have to "give" for him to "take" all of this? Of course, the ML took him in as a son because he felt a sense of dutifulness and gratefulness to his dead wife (the only one who didnt assume bad from him prob) and he perceived his wife's wishes to care for her son. The ML gives, unconditionally. He has a sense of right and wrong for how relationships and things should be taken care of so that they dont do bad.

But MC, naturally as a result of his parental issues, is always looking for reassurance that there's someone in this world that he matters to emotionally. Its a subconscious thing, not even a conscious expectation, that primes him to be hurt bc it triggers past feelings of not mattering and being an invisble child with no real connections. Its also just exacerbates the uncomfortableness and inauthenticity of this fake-happy family, so he doesn't like that he needs to perform a good son or answer to his father as one. MC will eventually get past this once he learns to separate his past emotions being triggered by ML and understand ML as an individual who presents differently but is still a human.

What I find most interesting is the ML. On the surface he seems to have no empathy but I think an autism-flataffect-adjacent lens is beneficial for this. Since birth he doesn't instinctually understand or copy social performance, but he has put a lot of effort into cognitively undeestanding. His vision for life is giving what others want, and finding a partner that is totally ok with the fact he cant provide emotion, just an agreement of geniune mutual 'give and take'. Nothing wrong with that, yet he gets constantly negative feedback for something he cant control. He acknowledges that he cant provide this 'emotion' performance thing everyone else needs and is ok with letting the MC go. But it still sucks from the ml's perspective that theres no one that matches his sense of mutual aid, no stable relationships he can form, it seems society says he doesn't really deserve his vision for life even tho it doesnt hurt anybody, and he should be judged for how he is not like the others. He doesn't particularly want to hurt or take advamtage of ppl, he jus dont receive social signals or feel the desire to be in the ingroup. Though i just remembered that he was pretty possessive and i dont subscribe to dat....

There is also the motif of family in the duty sense. They are connected inescapably, they share parts of their life that other people wouldn't understand ("wife") and its regretful to cut off these connections. Its a real thing ppl feel where besides your personal gripes to an individual, that individual holds a role no one else have, and you honor that.

More research into why children act out (often bc they have an internal belief abt their attachments to the world they dont know how to confirm) would be beneficial to understand this