This is what I was trying to post last week!

"It was an inconsistent and ubiquitous fiend too, for, while it was making the whole night behind him dreadful, he darted out into the roadway to avoid dark alleys, fearful of its coming, hopping out of them like a dropsical boy’s-kite without tail and wings.” (p 168). 

To analyze the content of this passage, one must first analyze its writing style. The word fiend (as defined in vocabulary) is an example of zeugma. Young Jerry is running away from both the haunted copse that he believes is following him from the graveyard but also his father. To most, the two meanings of the word fiend mean two different things, but to YJ they are the same thing. Here YJ has an epiphany. He realizes that his father treats his mother and him badly, and has a black-market immoral job, and no longer wants to be just like him. He is worried about becoming that very kite, with its tail and wings cut off, becoming his father (He already looks like a miniature version) if he doesn’t get away. His reaction the next morning can be analyzed through a Freudian reading. YJ exhibits a reaction formation. He is so scared about what his father will do if he finds out and how to deal with the truth that he subconsciously takes the opposite reaction to his true reaction and acts as if he is totally for becoming a resurrection man. Jerry and YJ are at the point in their relationship where YJ will start to question Jerry and think for himself. However, this is just a point along the way. YJ is not fully thinking for himself because he is resorting to reaction formation as a safety net. It will be interesting to see how this father son relationship plays out through the rest of the novel.