He and Cesar's relationship probably wouldn't be ruined because Hank saw the warning signs and left. He would have been more vigilant rather than turning a blind eye to Caesar's questionable activities. Like Caesar's massive drug use, a plethora of illegal weapons, and the admission that he sells them on the black market. Hank, if he had been more independent he would have had the foresight to see that it was a bad situation and would have been strong enough to get through it, but instead Hank was driven by his neediness and dependence . Hank's lack of decision-making leads him to have little control or choice over his life and the events that have unfolded. Lack of dependence and lack of choice were two major characteristics of poverty, according to Vollman. Hank's dependence on people caused him to become choice poor, which with little to no choice forced him to become more and more dependent on the people around him, which reflects and affirms Vollmann's perspective on poverty as a vicious cycle and shows how poor Hank was really not due to his finances but because of circumstances and his inability to be independent, which ultimately caused him to led to become a choice.