“The boy’s body might have been wood or stone; a post or tower upon which the sentient part of him mused like a hermit, contemplative and remote with ecstasy and selfcrucifixion.” This quote from chapter seven on page 67 was interesting to me because of how many things it alludes to. It alludes to how numb Joe has become to the beatings from his foster father. That alone shows how ritualistic the beatings have become where Joe just expects them and accepts them. The fact that violence and brutality has become normal to him shows just how much he is separating himself from his mind and body. So this quote alludes to how this separation will eventually allow Joe to become like his foster father, who I am sure when conducting the beatings is doing it out of habit and has become cognitively ignorant. Joe’s body has become “wood or stone” when it came to the beatings, and his mind will become like that too. It’s interesting that when he was beating up the prostitute …show more content…
In chapter seven, he ravishes the food “like a dog” (p. 65) or “he felt like an eagle” (p. 67), further shows the separation of human identity to animal identity. The fact that Joe is being compared to various animals, one vicious and one “remorseless” (p. 67) shows that Joe is becoming more and more like those animals. He is gaining some of their qualities that are described in the novel. The savage dog represents Joe when he was beating the black woman; he just fought because his violent nature and exposure kicked in. This is comparable to McEachern because of his violent nature too, which could be why Joe becomes violent too. The remorseless and strong eagle represents him as well because when he kills his McEachern, he doesn’t seem to have remorse, and he just takes all his money. This imagery is important because it shows the animalistic nature of humans, and it certainly shows Joe’s