Dogeaters (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Jessica Hagedorn
- First Published: 1990
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The 1950’s
- Setting: Manila, the Philippines
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Postcolonial literature
- Subjects: 1950’s, Maturation or coming of age, Class conflict, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Sex or sexuality, Prostitution or prostitutes, Rape, Asia or Asians, Violence, Adultery, Assassination, Corruption, Cruelty, Guerrillas or guerrilla warfare, Nightclubs, Torture, Asian Americans, Civil wars, Philippines or Filipinos
- Locales: Manila, Philippines
Characters Discussed
Rio Gonzaga (RREE-oh gohn- SAH-gah), a first-person narrator. She recalls, from an unspecified time in the future, events of her childhood from the ages of ten to fifteen.
Joey Sands, another first-person narrator, named for the Las Vegas casino. Joey is effectively orphaned in early childhood when his mother, a beautiful prostitute named Zenaida, drowns herself. Joey has no idea who his father is, other than that he was a black American soldier. A small-time pimp and drug pusher, Uncle, pays for the mother’s funeral expenses and takes Joey into...
[The entire page is 1305 words long]
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