The stories The Gossiper and Betty Ann share the theme of regret. The author shows the theme of regret in The Gossiper by a lesson. The author compares gossip to chicken feathers blowing in the wind. The author talks about how when you spread gossip, you cannot take it back, just like trying to collect chicken feathers that have blown away. In this way the author shows that the character cannot take back their actions and they feel regret because of that.
The author shows the theme of regret in the story Betty Ann by feelings. In the story an adult regrets bullying a classmate when she was younger. In the story the author says "We tell ourselves it takes more than that to send someone over the edge. Maybe so, maybe not. But there are no erasers." This means that the author is saying that you may think you need to put in a lot of work to make someone feel bad, but you really don't need to.
This ties into regret because the quote says there are no erasers. No erasers means you cannot take something back, and in this case that something is bullying. The author is talking about how you can regret bullying someone, and that you will never be able to take it back.
