Love
Love can also be an abuse. Emotional abuse is very subtle. Many times, the victim
oreven the abuser is unaware of the emotional abuse. The action in motivation of love
causes result is a psychological trauma. “Mom loved my brother more.... Joseph was her
it.” (Aimee, 40) The love that the Mother brought to Joseph was warm and profound. The
same way, the trauma of love is also heavy. “It would be the middle of the afternoon, airy
and calm, and Joseph would be home and then not home.” (Aimee, 86) His silent disap-
pearance has expressed a lack of hope for the family. The book did not directly describe
what kind of trauma Joseph had experienced. But from his relationship with his mother,
one can infer that he became extremely sensitive because of a lack of effective communi-
cation.
Mother is generous in praising her son. “Joseph, she said, is like a geode - plain
on the outside, gorgeous on the inside.”(Aimee, 46) She also often showed concern for
Joseph. She would not forget to ask Joseph for food and clothing. But from start to finish,
Mother never understood how Joseph really felt.
Joseph has been in a state of contradiction. He clearly knew his parents' love for
him, but he also knew that the way they loved him was not appropriate. Besides, because
the family lacks communication, the gap between members kept growing. “Usually, like
my father, I took Joseph’s disappearances in stride and just waited out the time till he
returned.” (Aimee, 160) At last, all people are commonplace about Joseph's disappear-
ance.
Empathy & Intelligence
Although Joseph seemed taciturn, he had a strong sense of empathy. Empathy refers to
being able to put yourself in a better sense of the feelings of others. The strength of
empathy appears with intelligence which born to have. The scholar, Tom F.D Farrow,
states this point in his book Empathy in Mental Illness. “People who are depressed most
often have normal or elevated levels of empathy.” (Tom F.D Farrow, 1) Joseph was a
clever boy. “Joseph is brilliant, adults often said as they shuttled out of the house.”
(Aimee, 34) Joseph's intelligence brought him a sharper nerve. He is different from
children of the same age. He was more sensitive, sharp, and alert. Either one of them is
too heavy for a child.