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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42713
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

## Joe is insecure and craves approval

Joe has a deperate need to be looked up to. It is more important to him than other people's feelings, or even his ability to read the room.

Joe hangs out with 2 morons because they laugh when he makes jokes, and respond to his displays of power imbalance, which they think is funny. Since they aren't very bright, he's got a limited range in which he can reliably trigger their approval. Bullying and mocking smaller kids is something they understand and always respond to. The displays aren't really to keep the younger kids in line, they aren't even to make Joe feel strong. He rarely needs to resort to violence because the smaller kids aren't going to fight him. **He never bullies an equal, or someone older, because that would risk possible failure.** There's no racist ideology behind it. It's just about getting a reaction and a laugh. Joe desperately needs attention and approval, and this is the lowest hanging fruit.

It is easy to imply that he is modeling this behavior on someone in his own family, an abusive authority figure. Joe isn't mature enough to examine what's wrong, or to admit that his homelife has problems. He knows that important people can make you jump, and they resent "the Jews" because… well, reasons! He may have received approval by mirroring the authority figure. Joe has an enormous hole in his character, he is half a person. That missing half is a flaw that he is compensating for, and functioning around. He has worked out a system that superficially resembles his home hierarchy with himself at the top (the only position that matters), but he believes it only when it's reflected by others. Other people fill the hole, but he needs them to behave in agreement with his idea of how the world works. Joe also understands that he can't take it to the level where a teacher intervenes – that ruins his power display. It also risks calling the unstable authority figure. Joe has to carefully manage his bullying so that he doesn't get bullied himself. This is an insecurity feedback loop that makes him pull back from actual violence or evidence. His bully crew doesn't understand this, the younger kids don't understand this, but Joe has to manage a narrow path to maintain his system.

Why would Joe want to stowaway with some kids who don't even like him? Because making fun of these kids is a more _secure_ path than going home. Keyword is "secure". He _knows_ there will be a negative confrontation on the boat, but he'll be the one who causes it. Just when they are off being the happy Jews or whatever, he'll jump out and tell them all how dumb they are and spoil it for them. It's always better to be the one spoiling than to be the victim.

Remember, Joe is extremely insecure and compensating around this hole. He needs an _external_ reaction, because he's half a person. He is not self-supporting – he cannot prop up his own ego. You could give him a _handicap_ that further isolates him, a learning disability or a sensitivity that was beaten out of him until he repressed it. You won't need to telegraph this too heavily, just provide for its existence. The real transformation happens in Egypt.

Joe is without his bully crew, but he is also without his home oppressor. There are new adults who haven't written him off, and he gets to re-invent himself. He might actually forget that he'd used these kids to prop up his own insecurities, but of course they won't forget – with the rules completely changed the other kids may be more willing to close ranks to keep him out, right around the time he begins to learn to breathe. He may resort to old habits, but they stop registering because he actually doesn't need to compensate here. For the first time in his life Joe is outside the reach of his abuser. He will occasionally be cautiously happy, which will seem unfamiliar to everyone.

A toddler takes a shine to him, and this is some honest adoration from someone who can't judge power systems at all, and maybe these are some of the emotions that he had to repress, caring for someone else, and experiencing love that doesn't turn on and off, or backhand you without warning.

I think this is a **semi** -realistic psychology, and I'm not sure how far you want to "redeem" him. My guess is you are using the 2yo to signal that he is a changed person, but in rl no one has an "instant" transformation so it might be more honest (although less transformative) to show him struggle with a value system that makes him _need_ and _reject_ the toddler at the same time. He gets to be a new man here, but he hasn't seen this reliably rollmodeled before. Before he discovers how to be a caregiver, he may need to experience a better adult roll model.

In rl Joe is a sociopath who can eventually learn to re-wire his brain's value systems. His moron friends might be psychopaths who actually receive pleasure from seeing others abused in an imbalance of power. I think adults would pick up on all these psychological shades, but I don't know how easily 10-12yo readers will forgive a bully antagonist. They may prefer to see him get his just dues rather than escape an abuser we don't actually see.

Original score: 4