As mentioned last time, “In the Basement” has been building toward the moment when Borgman, this patient, tolerant seeker, has finally had enough. There is some red line he won’t cross, and this will tell us something about the essential difference between him and the narrator, and between his family and the narrator’s.
Borgman finally breaks on page 303 of the Morrison version, with the line: “His little uniform and his cap with the turned-up edges flashed across the yard.”
So, I asked at the end of the last session: what finally causes Borgman to flee?