The first concept that was brought to my attention was Joey’s critical ages when his uncle exposed him to the immoral world Joey from then on lived in. When Joey’s mother was driven to suicide he was only five years old. This is also the time that Joey went to his uncle’s house. At the age of seven the stealing started. Joey’s virginity was taken at the age of 10, by one of his uncle’s whores. I believe this age frame five to ten is one of the most curial times to learn life long morals and sets a person up for the rest of their lives.
Joey didn’t really know who his mother was at all. “They say that she was still young and beautiful, they shake their heads solemnly at the terrible waste. I’m not sure they’re telling the whole truth; maybe she was the more ordinary than they remember an ordinary whore with a ravaged face.” (Page 42) He grew up believing what everyone else told him about his mother. The only true thing about her that he knows is that her name was Zenaida. Joey went to his uncle’s house after his mother’s body was identified; “Uncle identified her bloated body, arranged for her pauper’s burial. That’s why I own him” (Page 42) Joey never grieved his mother’s death, didn’t even shed a tear, and never talked about it again.
Uncle started having Joey doing odd jobs on the street, selling cigarettes, magazine, snacks, and garlands. “Legitimate little things that never got me anywhere; I had to compete with all the other kids on the street, running up to cars and busses, pestering tourists, hawking our wares.” (Page 43) This part of the passage gives an insight on the life; Joey isn’t the only child in this situation. Joey also became a con artist with his uncle; “Then there were times when Uncle pretended he was crippled and blind. I would lead him up to the air-conditioned Toyotas and Mercedes-Benzes where rich people and foreigners sat with their doors locked, trying to ignore my outstretched hand at their window” He became a beggar through cons of pity.
The stealing started at the age of seven. Uncle told him he was one of the best; “I was wiry, fast, and fearless. A natural talent, according to him.” The adrenalin rush from it is what made Joey want to keep doing it. “A heady rush of triumph like dope, a pleasure so private, delicious, and powerful. I never once got caught – that’s how good I was.” (Page 43) At the age of ten one of uncle’s whores took his virginity. He didn’t like it at first, but then had an erg to have sex with her again. “The pleasure I suddenly felt was extreme and overwhelming.” (Page 44) This I believe is the start of his downfall, this is the rush that he is always trying to get at, through sex and drugs.
Joey was brought up to do what everyone else wanted him to do, if it was through stories of what his past was or direction for his future he always listened. This could explain why he grew up the way he did, “Sex-Tourism”.
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Uncle was Joey's connection to his mother, each time he went to visit Uncle he was reminded of her. In the chapter Redemption Joey realizes Uncle's betrayal and it is then that he speaks his mother's name to himself and becomes "sentimental" and feels yearning for his deceased mother. He always felt humiliated by his mother's memory and felt destined to become like her, a dead whore, but in this chapter he refuses to become like her and Joey "was not going to let the old man or anyone else kill him."
This chapter hit me the most because I could never understand how a little boy could be brought up the way he did, but in reality, it was live on the streets or live with Uncle. He would have treated the same probably either way he went, but despite Uncle's horrible teaching, Joey was given a place as a child to live. I believe that Uncle set him up to be like his mother. He did not mention her to Joey, but he raised him to steal and be a whore. I really blame no one but Uncle for the way Joey turned out. HE was forced into sex jobs. Maybe had things been different for him like living with a grandma or anyone but uncle and his mother, he would have not followed in her footsteps.
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