Nothing matters. I have known that for a long time. So nothing is worth doing. I just realized that.
Of all the ways in which the students in 7A envisaged the school year starting, a lesson in existential nihilism from a classmate was probably not one of them. In this quote, Pierre Anton sets out both the essence of the philosophy of Nihilism, and also the philosophy that he adheres to. He lives by it and eventually dies by it. Pierre Anton believes nothing is worth doing and so he decides not to do anything, hence his leaving school and sitting in a tree for the rest of the book.
The quote also triggers the construction of the Heap of Meaning, which is the root of the violence and savagery that ensues. The Heap is Pierre Anton's challenge to his classmates to prove him wrong, and by selling their meaningful possessions to the art museum he believes that rather than challenging his philosophy they have actually validated it.
We should have stopped even before it got this far. Now it was somehow too late, even though I did what I could.
Agnes is aware that things are going to spiral out of control even before they actually do. This is also vaguely ironic because it is she who takes the sacrificing of meaningful things to a new and disturbing depth by demanding that Gerda give up her hamster. There is an enormous difference between giving up a book or a fishing pole, and sacrificing an animal. Agnes believes that she has tried to stop the savagery but she is deluding herself in this.
She believes that because the entire class are behind the snowballing events, she is powerless to stand up to them anyway. Agnes is a follower and this quote from her shows the danger of thinking as a mob rather than as an individual. She is an example of the saying "all it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing. "
No-one else dared saying anything either for thinking about what was going to happen to Sophie, and it was worse than when we were making trouble.
Agnes remains silent about what has happened to Sofie because she is scared to say anything. She believes that by saying nothing about it she is not participating in the rape, or in harming Sofie, or in making trouble. She sees a definite difference between staying silent and making trouble; however, she doesn't realize that her silence is the most dangerous thing of all. She is condemning Sofie to get raped by staying silent and she is just as culpable as the boys who rape her. Agnes' silence, and her comments about it afterwards, demonstrate again the danger of "group think" and the way in which the worst of crimes are enabled by people who choose to look the other way She is choosing to subscribe to Pierre Anton's belief that things like Sofie's rape are meaningless, because it is easier for her to explain away her own behavior and culpability.
