Coming Home Again - Chang Rae Lee

Coming Home Again

by Chang Rae Lee
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"Yes, I made a big mistake. You should be with us for that time. I should never let you go there.”

“So why did you?” I said.

“Because I didn’t know I was going to die.” 

Coming Home Again is a story that describes the tense, yet loving relationship between a mother and her son. The mother's health is ailing while the son is away at boarding school, and the entire story ultimately centralizes around the mother trying to bond with her son in her dying years.

One part of the story that I found particularly sad was how the mother continuously tried eating food in front of her family, while everyone knew that she could not stomach it. It showed that she was legitimately trying to make an effort, just to appease her family, when she knew that it would inevitably fail and that she would not even be able to swallow the food.

The primary channel of bonding between son and mother is their shared interest in cooking. Throughout his childhood, the son would stand right next to his mother and watch her every move while she cooked. It interested him and he would often ask her questions about her methodology. However, after going to boarding school and returning, his education changed him and he forgot many of the little things that his mother taught him, such as which spices to use and when.

Seeing her in her decrepit state, it pains him to forget such little tidbits of knowledge. It seemed to me that the overarching theme of this story is never to take what you have for granted, as the son does. It is important to being present and engaged with your loved ones for as much time as you possibly can, because you never know when they'll disappear from your life forever. As is mentioned in the quote I begin this blog post with, the mother regrets not spending more time with her son. Despite the fact that going to Exeter in New Hampshire educated her son more, it took precious time that she could have spent with him away from her.

Edison, New Jersey - Junot Diaz

Edison, New Jersey

by Junot Diaz
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"Don't get angry.

I'm tired, that's all.

Tired's the best way to be, he says. It really is."

Edison, New Jersey is a story about an under-privileged man and his friend Wayne who are employees of a moving company. The two of them live their lives with very little excitement and often find their days full of disappointment. For example, the main character's girlfriend leaves him and finds a new man.
He basically does whatever he can to stay positive and make the best out of his days, while exacting revenge on those who wrong him (usually the people whose house he is delivering to). He makes up games with his friend and steals from the people who give him a hard time, always trying to get a little extra wherever he can. I don't blame him for stealing from them, considering his predicament. He leads a rather depressing life with very little going for him.
I interpret this story to mean that when life gets down on you, you need to just keep pushing on and doing whatever you can to maintain a positive attitude. When life gets down on you there is little else you can do other than staying positive and getting enjoyment out of little things, such as silly games with your friends, to keep you going. The two characters in this story exemplify getting by on very little.
Another thing that the main character did to help maintain his happiness and his sanity with the repetition of his everyday life was giving the hired-help of one of the homes he was delivering for a ride to New York. It took him a week and was a serious investment of his time, but he did it because it was a good deed and it helped someone out who he could really see needed the help. He gave her a ride because he wanted someone else to be happy and by making another person happy, it made him happy in turn. That's what I considered this story to be about -- the little things that keep you going and helping others.

The Cariboo Cafe - Helena Viramontes

The Cariboo Cafe

by Helena Viramontes

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"Raising a child is like building a kite.You must bend the twigs enough, but not too much, for you might break them... It is such delicate work, Lord, being a mother."

The Cariboo Cafe is a story that details the delicacy of raising a child. Unfortunately, the mother is forced to do so in an extremely dangerous environment. All throughout the story, the mother is described as incredibly diligent in regards to her work ethic. She does everything she possibly can to provide for her children and her family, washing dishes and picking up additional shifts on the weekends and during odd hours.

This story has strong themes of Nature vs. Nurture. The "polie" -- the antagonists of the story -- are terrible people who take them away to Tijuana and do terrible things to them. The people are forced to work endless hours for their food and relinquish any sentiment of a normal lifestyle. The reason that I began to consider the theme of Nature vs. Nurture resulted from the way the mother described these evildoers as "farts out of the Devil's ass". I wonder: were these people born evil or did societal influence push them to be such evil characters?

In my opinion, The Cariboo Cafe was a story describing the power and intensity of a mother's love for her child. It details the extent of how far the mother will go to protect her child. She throws hot coffee in the polies' faces right before they put the barrel of a gun to her head and kill her at the end of the story while she held her child's hand. The end of the story was very powerful in terms of describing the mother's love for her child.

Seventeen Syllables - Hisaye Yamamoto

Seventeen Syllables

By Hisaye Yamamoto
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"Jesus, Jesus, she called silently, not certain whether she was invoking the help of the son of the Carrascos or of God, until there returned sweetly the memory of Jesus' hand, how it had touched her and where."

Seventeen Syllables describes the unhappy life of a woman who the reader is led to believe has been struggling with depression for several years. Up until the end of the story, the content centralizes around the woman's love and obsession with poetry -- specifically, haikus. The family lives on a tomato farm and the daughter, Rosie, develops an emotional connection with Jesus Carrasco, a son of the family that helps them tend their farm.

As the story progresses, the husband and father of the family is seen becoming more and more hateful of his wife's obsession with haiku. He is slowly alienated from her life; when guests come over, his wife will take the literary-inclined guests to her study to discuss poetry, while he would be left entertaining the rest. The separation between the two of them seems to develop into a chasm of mutual disinterest.

Finally, at the end of the novel, when the father burns the prize that his wife earned in a poetry submission contest, the wife takes Rosie by the wrists and tells her that she was suicidal before meeting Rosie's father and that marrying him was her alternative to suicide. Upon telling her daughter this, she makes her daughter promise to never get married. Rosie promises, but looks off into the distance while doing so, and her mother senses her insincerity.

The last few pages of the story convey the entire message of the story; to me, the story illustrated the negative repercussions that being unhappy to one's spouse can have on the couple's offspring. Basically, the mother was depressed for her entire adult life. She was depressed before she married Rosie's father, and did not (and may not still) truly love him when she married him. Therefore, her depression continued to spiral in a negative trajectory. When she finally found something she was passionate about, her husband was jealous because she did not devout the same amount of time and attention to him as she did to the art of poetry; thus, causing the husband to displace his anger on her art.

When her husband finally snaps and burns her first place prize, the sign that it gives to Rosie is nothing less than an eccentric display of hopelessness in regards to love and happiness. Her father's actions and her mother's words illustrate to Rosie that love is terrible; that it ruins lives.

The story's message is that one's actions affect more than just oneself. Actions and words send a message beyond what one realizes at the time.