Social Issues: Conflicts in New York

             While Joe is in New York, he finds a lot of success with his comic books, and they seem to become the next superman comic that everyone is looking for. This was the result of his one goal of obtaining enough money to allow his family to travel to the United States and join him. Joe manages to get a job with Sammy at Empire comics after showing off his exceptional drawings and comics. At this stage of the book, Joe has managed to make upwards of seven thousand dollars which in his mind should be plenty to get his family into the United States. However, this task proves to be extremely difficult as the United States began to limit the number of visas they were handing out. It was a frustrating situation for Joe since he had the money but he lacked the connections and ability to obtain visas for his family. In his attempts to get his family to join him, he met with Herr Milde where he learned his father had died several weeks ago. 

            His father's death seemed like it was his fault because he was unsuccessful in his attempts to get them out of Prague. It was becoming increasingly difficult for Joe to reunite with his family, and this resulted in a lot of frustration. Joe began taking this frustration out on Germans living in New York City. It first started when he just saw a German who he believed to be a fighter standing on the sidewalk; he spit on his shoes and refused to apologize despite Sammy's attempts to fix the situation. Joe continued to pick out fights whenever he chose: at a football game he continually sneered at two German brothers sitting behind him and Sammy until he thought he heard them mutter a slur under their breath. He followed that up with climbing over several rows of seats and beginning another altercation.

            Joe would simply leave the house and walk around the city looking for fights. He would enter bars looking to get into a confrontation with Germans. When Joe saw a sign that said "Aryan-American League" it piqued his interest and he decided to do some investigating. He went up to the building and picked the lock to get into the office where he decided to make a mess. When Carl Ebling entered, he got into a fight once again. These social conflicts were big issues during the World War II time period, but they are no longer relevant today.