Who is the thief in Theft? The obvious answer is that the janitress is the thief. She does steal the purse from the woman's room in the first place. However, she had a reason to steal it; for her young niece who would benefit from having the purse more than the woman. After all, she would be able to catch the attention of a good husband with the purse and the woman is past attracting a good husband. Therefore, why does she deserve the purse more than the young girl?
Although the janitress did take the purse first, she implies that she is not the thief but the woman is because she refused to let a young girl have the purse when it would do her good. When looking at it this way, the woman is the thief for keeping the purse for herself when it could help someone else.
So who is the thief? I would say that the thief is the woman. The first half of the story is only there to prove that it is the woman that is the thief. At first I wasn't sure why the first half of the story was included at all. However, it shows the reader that, although the woman is a likeable enough character on the outside, she is the thief of the story. She has these relationships with these men but she is stealing something from each of them. She takes Camilo's dignity because she makes him pay for her when they are both poor and expects him to wear his hat in the rain because it is the classy thing to do even though it will ruin the hat. Roger pays for most of the taxi ride they both take. She asks Bill for $50 even though he has just finished telling her that he is running low on money because of his other expenses and paying for his lifestyle. Each of these men give her money but none of them get anything back. She doesn't seem to have any relationship with them beyond friendship. However she expects them to give her money. She is actually robbing them. Therefore, the woman is the thief of the story.
1 comment:
I was actually going to do my post about this. I would like to add that she never really elaborates on where she got the purse in the first place. She only says it was a "gift." Perhaps she actually stole it herself? The reason I think this is because she gets SO angry that someone could steal from HER. She is looping the event in her head over and over until she has kind of gone crazy from being angry at the purse being stolen. She goes back and forth thinking it's not a big deal to thinking it's a really big deal. I think maybe part of her anger could be coming from guilt in being treated the way she's been treating others. I don't think she really learned her lesson in the end though...
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