We Who Are Young

William Brooks: [William bursts into Beamis' office] I came for that plan, Mr Beamis. You know, my re-organisation plan that you never read.

C.B. Beamis: Oh, yes, I... I've been wanting to talk to you about it.

William Brooks: Yes, well I don't want to talk about it.

C.B. Beamis: What do you mean?

William Brooks: I don't find it very pleasant talking with you, Mr Beamis. I worked here three years and the only talks we ever had were when you fired my wife and when you fired me. And that isn't exactly my idea of conversation.

C.B. Beamis: Now look here, William, I've explained to you that I don't make the rules.

William Brooks: Well I'm not kicking about your rules. It's the way you operate them. You're a wrong guy, Mr Beamis. You've got the soul of an adding machine. Sure, you can add up the rules alright, you can add up anything that's in black and white. But the one thing that you can never add up, Mr Beamis, is how to give a guy a break.

C.B. Beamis: Now see here, I don't have to tolerate this. What right have you to speak that way to me?

William Brooks: I've got the right that comes from spending three whole years of my life in your office. I worked hard for you and did my job well. The only thing I wanted was to get married. Now that isn't asking too much is it? So you fired my wife and when they attached my salary, you fired me. When you take away a family's income, Mr Beamis, you take away its very life. You might just as well have shot me. It would have been kinder. Oh, but I forgot. You don't know anything about being kind.

C.B. Beamis: I certainly don't. Not if it means shooting people, I don't.

William Brooks: Well, I wouldn't expect you to understand. I should have saved my breath. You're not human.

C.B. Beamis: But you are, of course. I've noticed that about you weaklings. You're always twice as human as anybody else.

William Brooks: So I'm a weakling because I needed help, huh? Well, Mr Beamis, we don't speak the same language.

C.B. Beamis: I'm afraid you'll find the same difficulty with any employer.

William Brooks: Nah, no, you had me believing that all bosses are like you. But I've found out differently. I'm going to work for a man who helped me when I needed it. But you wouldn't understand that either.

C.B. Beamis: I understand it alright. And it's the one thing that I detest. In all my life I've never asked for help or accepted any. What I have, I've gotten through my own efforts. And I'm proud of it.

William Brooks: Oh, sure, you've got something to be proud of alright - a bank account with a million dollars worth of hatred.

C.B. Beamis: That's not true.

William Brooks: Why, every time you walk through that office, you'd feel the hate, if you were human. Yes, I say you're not human and I'll tell you why; it's because you really think that you've never been helped. You've never found out like I have that people could be kind, could understand. You've never found out that people are better than rules. And I'll tell you why you've never found out; it's because you've got a lie in your head. The same lie that you just told me. You've never been helped? Why you and I and everybody from the minute they're born they're being helped. The whole country, our homes, our churches, our schools and what they stand for, nobody could build those alone. We did it together, all of us, the people helping each other, and believe me, Mr Beamis, if any man says that he made his money or built his life without the help of anybody else, he's a fool! He's wore than a fool, he's a liar.