In Search of Respect

by

Philippe Bourgois

Abraham Character Analysis

An elderly, one-eyed, alcoholic man whom Primo “adopts” as a surrogate grandfather and hires to work at the Game Room. Abraham cleans the Game Room and pretends to be senile and collect quarters from the game machines when the police show up, in order to dissuade them from investigating the crackhouse. He dies between the end of Bourgois’s fieldwork and the book’s publication.
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Abraham Character Timeline in In Search of Respect

The timeline below shows where the character Abraham appears in In Search of Respect. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3: Crackhouse Management: Addiction, Discipline, and Dignity
The Crack Trade and the Underground Economy Theme Icon
Poverty, History, and Public Policy Theme Icon
...comings and goings of the emaciated addicts,” distract the police (especially the 72-year-old one-eyed alcoholic Abraham, who collects quarters from the game machines), and protect the crackhouse against potential mugging or... (full context)
Epilogue
Anthropological Research and its Consequences Theme Icon
Street Culture and Drug Use  Theme Icon
...lives with his girlfriend and son. Eddie, Caesar’s cousin, is still a bus driver. And Abraham, the alcoholic elderly man Primo “adopted” as a grandfather, died—this precipitated a housing catastrophe in... (full context)