Lavish wealth and privilege
The children are literally defined by wealth and privilege. Their homes and rooms leave nothing to be desired, and they treat the home with disregard. They don't care about their parents nor their wishes. Their lives have trained them that they always get what they want. They are spoiled and entitled. This is told through their imagery of experience. They view their privilege as an automatic truth that they can always depend on. To the reader, this imagery comes off despicably, making the children hard to like.
Trouble-making and evil
The daily comings-and-goings of the children are demonstrations of their nefarious intentions. They make trouble for others whenever they can, and their outlook on life is nihilistic and destructive. They make fun of poor people and pull pranks on their parents. They leave faucets running and destroy property. This is an imagery that grows with time, showing itself to be a spectrum. On the near side, the imagery is almost playful, with a bite; on the far side, the children are evil enough to bring about rapes and murders by wantonly stirring up trouble in their community.
Privacy and sin
The imagery of privacy and sin is one that the kids walk into to when they discover Armida's side hustle. She is poor, and she isn't much to look at, but nevertheless, some of the town guys pay her a small fee to touch them sexually. They see her secret sin, and they expose her. Then, they steal from her and leave. In the aftermath, the kids realize that this imagery of secret sin has been transferred to them; now they each carry burdens of their guilt. Victor can't stand the guilt and he commits suicide.
Guilt and innocence
The religious imagery of the novel is almost immediately disregarded by the children. They laugh at the idea of Confirmation class and First Communion, and they cut class to make trouble in the neighborhood. Then, when their actions bring about acts of horror and violence that lead to death, they realize they are guilty for these chaotic outbreaks. Their innocence is gone, but instead of the typical transition from innocence to experience, they move straight into bloodguilt, and they become desperate for healing and reconciliation. They realize they are truly capable of evil and mayhem, but too late. This casts a new light on Communion.
