The Rag and Bone Shop Themes

The Rag and Bone Shop Themes

Greed

One of the primary themes in the novel is greed. Greed represents itself in a couple of different ways throughout the novel. First, greed shows in the bullying that Bobo Kelton does to his classmates. Bobo's greed is his need to show that he is superior and stronger than his fellow classmates, including the girl he gropes in the hall and Jason Dorrant, who Bobo attacks in the school cafeteria.

The biggest show of greed comes from Trent, the interrogation officer. Trent has a need, urge and desire to maintain his 100 percent confession rate, no matter what the cost is to the confessors. All Trent seems to care about is getting away from the police station where he is currently employed and furthering his own career. While it is not clear that Trent has acted greedily in his previous cases, it is evident that he does so with Jason...
(read more)