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{ text shouldn't get longer than 5000 characters } Jan-Michael Vincent is automatically on a monster! #vid32MB #unitTest N Junior, a young nine year old boy, lives in Caracas in a shoddy apartment complex with his mother and baby brother. He has "pelo malo," a Hispanic term for curly, Afro-textured hair, which he constantly attempts to straighten using various methods, including smearing a mixture of mayonnaise and other ingredients into it. His hair is a constant source of frustration for both he and his mother, who does not approve of his obsession with his looks, believing that it's not normal behavior for a young boy his age.
Junior and his friend from the apartments, "La Niña," spend a lot of time together in her family's apartment watching the Venezuelan beauty pageants on TV. La Niña is the classic "girly girl," dressing like a princess and playing with makeup and dolls often. Junior also enjoys the beauty pageants, and when the time comes for the two to take their school pictures, La Niña chooses to dress as a princess while Junior wants to dress as a singer with straight hair. It is in this scene that the double standard for males and females in Latin American society is demonstrated best; the photographer suggests that Junior dress as something more masculine, suggesting a soldier with a gun and hat. It is considered normal for La Niña to be obsessed with beauty and dresses and pictures, but for Junior it is not a normal interest.
His mother does not approve of his constant grooming and takes it to be a sign of his homosexuality. Twice she takes him to the doctor to find out if he is developing "normally," later coming out and asking the doctor straightforwardly if he is gay. When the doctor suggests he needs a stronger male influence at home (the mother is widowed), she brings home her boss and has sex with him, forcing Junior to watch them through his open bedroom door. Junior rolls over in his bed in an attempt to look away.
The treatment of Junior's "abnormal" obsession with his hair is placed at the spotlight of the movie, amid other far worse aspects of society and life around him. In the apartments, the children face many dangers; La Niña even says at one point in the movie that she fears they will be raped, with Junior telling her not to worry about that because "you have to be pretty to be raped" to which she responds, "then you have nothing to lose." This also demonstrates the double standards for beauty and sexuality facing Venezuelan society. The movie is also set against the backdrop of the announcement that Hugo Chavez is dying, signifying the end of an era in Venezuela and uncertainty for the future. Amid all these problems, the issue of Junior's hair and his sexuality is still the main focus of the film.
Role in the novels
He is first encountered in The Mummy Case, as the mastermind of an organized gang of thieves attempting to steal antiquities from Dahshoor, in which he is partially foiled by Amelia Peabody and her husband, Radcliffe Emerson. To their surprise, he reveals that he has spent most of the novel right under their noses, pretending to be a Coptic priest of the local village. Despite his disguise, Amelia feels sure he is English in origin.I
n Lion in the Valley, his nom de guerre is revealed, and he is thus described by an Englishman who hears of him during his brief foray into slum life:
"He has no name, only a variety of appellations. Those in his employ, I believe, refer to him as the Master. To others, less intimately associated with him, he is known as Sethos... The men who work for the Master are the cream of the criminal crop. To be chosen by him is a mark of honor. Even those who are not in his employ are in deadly terror of him, and it is said that his revenge on a traitor is swift and horrible." (LITV, chapter 5)
Amelia becomes obsessed with the idea of apprehending the Master Criminal and putting a stop to his activities. By the end of Lion in the Valley she is captured by Sethos, but astonished when he professes to be passionately in love with her. Amelia is starting to believe that she may be able to reform him when Emerson bursts in and fights with Sethos, who manages to escape. After realizing that he cannot have her, he promises never to harm or threaten her or her family.
He reappears in the novels from time to time, often to rescue Amelia from other foes. Despite her occasional entreaties, he never gives up his illegal activities, which he takes considerable pride in.
He is presumed dead at the end of The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog and again at the end of He Shall Thunder in the Sky, at which point it is revealed that he has been working for British Intelligence during the Great War.
Family
It is revealed in He Shall Thunder in the Sky that "Sethos" is actually Emerson and Walter's half-brother, the illegitimate son of their father and his mistress, who had been their mother's best friend. He spent his childhood hating Emerson for having the…