Prostitution, shame, and crime
The novel is situated around Josie's shame, especially the shame she feels about her mother. She feels her mother is an embarrassment to her, partially because she is a prostitute, but mostly because her mother is a sleazy criminal with sociopathic tendencies. The shame that Josie feels helps her to conclude that her mother is guilty for a local murder.
Changing fate
By not accepting the temptation which trapped her mother, the easy money of prostitution, Josie signals a change in her fate. Perhaps this integrity will prevent her from becoming like her mother, or perhaps not, but in any case, Josie is fully committed to becoming her own person. She works very hard to get an education for herself, and when that doesn't work out the way she hopes, she still chooses to respond in her own unique way, in the way she feels is right.
Judgment and condemnation
Unfortunately, Josie doesn't escape every snare. There is one emotional snare that she will need to work through, well past the end of this novel—the problem of judgment. See, it's not necessarily judgmental for Josie to be disappointed about her mother's choices in life, but Josie, having felt like she was always being judged, seems to have aligned herself with the voices that judge prostitutes. By the end of the novel, it isn't clear whether Josie is morally victorious, or whether she has slipped into the same judgmental patterns that led her to feel so hopeless and frustrated. Perhaps this is the point of the novel, to illustrate the impossibilities of Josie's situation.
