Joe Torchio is a seventy-two-year-old patient at Linda Manor, a nursing home. Joe has had a very tough life which turned him into a pessimist. He used to be a brilliant student and became a lawyer but was never quite happy with his job. He developed labile disease at the age of 54 because of which he frequently gets strokes. The concept of his role is to highlight the fact that it’s never too late to do what you’ve always wanted to do. He never truly got the happiness of being a father as his son died of leukemia and his daughter was born a retard. He also has a troubled relationship with his wife and was never able to tell her his true feelings. While Lou has a more positive outlook on life, Joe provides a more realistic view, balancing any extreme conclusions in the book. The character of Joe is an important one because it represents people who fail to find true happiness in life and get so caught up in their lives socially that they’re unable to enjoy little moments of joy. Joe was able to realize that he needs to tell his wife that he loves her with the help of his friend Lou.
The relationship of staff with patients is a typical one. They treat their patients like parents treat their children, instruct them like children are instructed by their parents to not do something or to eat on time. The only difference is that patients are not loved by the staff like children are loved by their parents. There is no bond between them. They are so emotionally disconnected that even the death of a patient has no effect on them. In fact, a death of a patient only means one less patient to give breakfast to. In the manor, the staff seems to be socially detached.
However, the relationship of patients with each other is strong. They know about each other and care for each other. They have formed their own little society. They socialize with each other and try not to intrude on someone’s matter. The most prominent example of this is the friendship of Lou and Joe. All the patients socialize with each other in their little society. They all have developed their own set of social norms which they follow. They avoid getting involved in each other’s matters. They all come to terms with each patient’s illness with time. They learn the values and norms of the nursing home gradually with time.
The wives and children of the patients are heavily influenced by societal norms. Although we consider leaving the elderly alone in some nursing homes to be morally incorrect, many people do it anyway. This in turn poses a conflict between social norms and our personal beliefs. Parents spend their whole life looking after their children, and when the time comes that they can no longer care for themselves, they are left in the nursing home alone. The families too add the pressure to either leave the parents or to keep them, making it hard for the individual to make a decision. The sociological factors have a great influence on the family of the patients and influence their behavior and decision-making. Their decisions then no longer remain emotional but become social instead. Lou’s daughter was going through the same dilemma. Earl’s wife, on the other hand, did not want to take him home with her because of his mental instability. She had an internal conflict going on making it hard for her to decide what to do. We feel ambivalent toward her actions because of this conflict. What she is doing may be morally wrong but her conflict is genuine and felt by the reader which makes it hard for the reader to label her actions strictly as morally wrong or socially correct. Ideally, we would always want to keep our parents and loved ones with us and that is something which would be socially appreciated, but in the real world, things are a little different. Everyone can’t keep their parents with them. The reason could be anything from social to personal.