Since Alex is unable to understand satire despite claiming to be a satirist, I feel I need to explain my post in detail so he can understand the nuanced writing.
"Hey, honey bear sugar plum. Are you staying off the no-no zones on the Internet up there?" Alex's mom asks from in the kitchen.
Here, the writing is trying to convey the naivety of Alex's mother. Her overly saccharine language she uses to address her adult son showcases her practice of coddling and enabling his infantile fantasies. Alex's mother keeps him forever as a child in her mind, needing protection from the real world and all its uncomfortable truths and responsibilities. Here she is believing that she is doing her duty to monitor Alex's Internet activities as she has stated. However instead of taking an active role in helping her son "detox" from negative interactions with online activities, she is passively letting her addict son have unsupervised access to his drug of choice, the Internet.
Stacey is lying to herself and letting her family down. By doing the bare minimum of simply asking Alex if he is being good, she can tell herself she is a good mother and have a clear conscience.
"Yes, mom. God. Give me a fucking break around here! I'm disabled!" Alex yells through his closed and locked bedroom door.
Here, Alex is shown using course language as a vessel to illustrate his disdain for the world around him. As an outsider, he feels attacked from every side and lashes out at those who try to help him. The toxic shame he harbours within lead to his innate habits of lying to avoid responsibility. "It's easier to lie now and apologize later than to tell the truth and face the consequences today" is his modus operandi.
We also see Alex hiding behind his disability. Milking pity from his loved ones, making excuses for his actions that he knows are wrong. Nothing is ever his fault if he can blame it on something or someone else.
The closed and locked door symbolizes Alex having secrets he's keeping from his family. His continued use of the same Internet sites he told his parents he is trying to avoid.
"Okay! Love you bunches and bunches! We're so proud of you, our precious baby boy!" She shouts back as she pops open her second box of wine for the day and turns towards Mr. Hogendorp. "Right, hon?"
Again, in this passage, we see Stacey's enabling codependency and magical thinking on display. I also make an unsubstantiated insinuation that the weight of constantly living in denial has caused Stacey to develop an alcohol dependency issue.
"Fucking retarded faggot," Mr. Hogendorp grumbles under his breath. "Wrong kid got cancer..."
As a relatively unknown character in the story, Mr. Hogendorp here is shown to be in a sour mood. This implies that out of the remaining family members living in the home, Mr. Hogendorp perhaps has the firmest grip on reality. He knows his wife is living in her delusions. He knows his son is a disappointment. He knows as a responsible adult he has to bear his own cross and accept reality despite how grim it may seem. He expresses his unhappiness by making a remark insinuating that he wishes that his failure of a son was no longer a burden in his life. He realizes that he cannot vocalize his complaints out loud or he will upset the fragile yet chaotic balance. This is why he merely grumbles his musings under his breath.
I hope this clears up any misunderstanding!
-Sparkletor
