Independence

Joseph’s journey is originally motivated by a desire for independence, and he initially seeks out this sense of independence by committing petty crimes as a teenager in rebellion against his parents’ lives of habituated routine and co-dependence. In the opening lines of the novel, Joseph states of his parents, “They were hateful presences in me. Like a little old couple in the woods, all alone for each other” (3). Joseph expounds on his parents’ fidelity to routine and co-dependence: “… they went [to work] together and came home together and ate their meals and went to the same bed together” (4). As a teenager, Joseph exercises a sense of independence by committing petty thefts and vandalisms. At the age of 18, as soon as Joseph graduates from high school, he leaves his hometown of Paterson, New Jersey and travels to New York City in order to further exercise and...