Stuff and Moonshine

There's an occasional wistfulness to Elwood ("My mother once told me to succeed in this world you must be oh so clever, or oh so pleasant. I've been clever; I recommend pleasant") that to me hints that at some point in the past he went through something catalyzing; and that Harvey wasn't necessarily what pulled him through, but his reward for making it through.

But again, none of this is particularly explicit in the text, so I wonder what we might be overlooking in the average MPDG character that could be uncovered by a closer reading.