chunk: Joe's story is told through flashbacks. His grandmother raises him after his mother abandons him, and his grandmother abuses him. He also has a tragic relationship with Annie, a local girl. Ratso's backstory comes through stories he tells Joe. His father was an illiterate Italian immigrant shoe-shiner, who worked in a subway station. He developed a bad back, and "coughed his lungs out from breathin' in that wax all day". Ratso learned shining from his father but won't stoop so low as to do so. He dreams of moving one day to Miami.