Throughout Darkmans, many of the characters are identified specifically with reference to their professions. The chiropodist and the unemployed mother seem to stand out to me in this regard. While they do not seem to be pigeonholed into categories based solely upon these professions, there does seem to be a preoccupation with them.
In light of this, I think that Dory's observation that Harvey was operating three distinct businesses and that he carried a different cell phone for each one, is significant. I think that the correlation between a character and his or her profession is made explicit by the narrator's comment: "And he certainly didn't know (how could he?) that each business represented a different 'side' to Harvey (in much the same way that different outfits and accessories represented a different 'side' to Barbie)."
It seems that the novel expands upon the idea of businesses as representative of the people that engage in them by allowing the reader to engage in a bit of stereotyping and formulating assumptions (which often prove to be true, as in the case of the unemployed mother) about the characters based upon where they fit into the economics of society.
Indeed, no one did much of anything, started jobs, quit jobs, marginally employed. Drug-dealing and podiatry (to bring it back to American English) were the only occupations that demonstrate initiative and both represent the under world, if you will--drug-dealing a literal, and podiatry--treatment of feet, the lowest part of the body.
ReplyDelete...but then there is also the professional counterfeiter, and the professional washer of laundry.
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