Many detectives in the hardboiled genre are often considered to be antiheroes, protagonists who lack the typical markers of moral goodness. Is Easy a hero, an antihero, or neither? How so?

Consider the division between public and private spaces, as well as public and private identities in the novel: How does identity interact with space? What are the effects of intrusions into private space?

Consider the young Mexican boy that Matthew Teran keeps as a sex slave and Tree Rat, the Jewish boy who died after ingesting rich foods, as foil characters: How are their experiences and outcomes similar and different?