If so, that fact lifts a load of guilt off this Puritan nation's shoulders.
Every character carries his or her special load of guilt and anger.
Starting with the question of who betrayed the Frank family's hiding place to the Nazis (the identity of the informer is still unknown, despite various theories), Lourie provides a fictional answer by placing this heavy load of guilt on an old man, Joop, who has lived with his terrible secret since his early teens.
But my real issue with this, a real proposal from a real, well-meaning organization concerned that children spend less time in play now than they once did, is that these campaigns — all the things parents "should" do with their children — add up, and what they add up to is a load of guilt.
Concurrently, he carried a gargantuan load of Catholic guilt: he was convinced that his philandering and other careless behavior, which began in the early days of his marriage, had caused his son's deafness.
The mother goes to work in the World Trade Center, and doesn't come home; Wendy is left with a load of inchoate guilt and misery, a devoted stepfather, an adored half brother, and a father in California, who, after years of neglect, is suddenly interested in her.
Frady has King loaded with "great cargoes of guilt" in early adolescence.
He tends to reserve the trademark sneer, loaded first question and presumption of guilt for members of parliament and ministers – even those who, truth be told, wield only the most modest modicum of influence.
Pangs of guilt and wistfulness visited him while loading the car into a trailer for its Michigan return; he was scheduled to fly back.
There's a grand design to Charles Todd's period novels featuring Inspector Ian Rutledge, a Scotland Yard detective who returned from the battlefields of World War I burdened with a heavy load of survivor's guilt.
