"Coming Home Again" by Chang-rae Lee

 "Are they sleeping? Or kissing? Are they all right?"

This story, while written as a straightforward narrative, has a lot to say about the parent-child relationship and the concept of growing up. The narrator is a good representation of the child in our modern world, especially one of non-white parentage. He progresses through his life aiming for success - leaving home for school at age fifteen -  and not really looking back until later. That's not to say it was his fault; his mother sent him to school, and he went along with it. In order to survive in this world, you have to adapt yourself to society's expectations and standards, and staying with your parents is not one of them. This is something with which the mother struggles throughout the story, and that the narrator discovers after the fact. Parents often will hide their struggles with you growing up, and choose your success over their desire to remain a family. The child only finds out about this after he or she grows up. "Coming Home Again" does a great job showcasing that dynamic.

The quote above is the last line in the piece, and it shows how the narrator still doesn't fully understand how his parents feel. His mother was upset by seeing her child go off and be without her, and his father was too. The narrator, being the child, is unable at this point to fully understand the depth of his parents' feeling of loss at him leaving. He primarily saw Exeter as his path to society and success. 

Another interesting theme in this piece is that of breaking gender stereotypes. There are multiple instances of unexpected actions based on gender. Near the beginning, the mother says to her son that he should go outside, because the kitchen wasn't his place. Later, though, the son is the one doing all the cooking. Instead of becoming the man who can't be seen cooking, he looked up to his mother and aspired to be like her, despite the stereotypes. There was also the basketball scene, where the son expects his mother to go play with his sister, but instead she shows him her basketball skills. Again, we find broken gender boundaries. This seems to exemplify how the son sees his mother. She is not confined or defined by the expected rules of her gender; she is his mother, and more well-rounded than that. 

As a whole, this is a lovely and nostalgic piece. As a reader, I could feel its authenticity and its relevance, despite my life not being much like this man's. It's written in such a way that anyone could connect it to their own life.

"The Cariboo Café" by Helena Viramontes

"Because we are going home. My son and I."

Out of all the stories I've read, this one is written in possibly the most unique perspective. It shifts between three first-person characters -- Sonya, the owner of the café, and the mother -- and a third-person narrator. Each character tells a part of the story, never chronologically overlapping. What makes this shifting of perspectives interesting, though, is the information that Viramontes leaves out in each perspective. We start with Sonya, and are told about her and her brother walking around the city and ending up in the café. Then, we are told from the perspective of the café owner about a little girl and boy with a woman, whom he presumes to be their mother. There are hints that the kids are Sonya and Macky, such as their age and her protectiveness, but we have no idea who the woman is -- she seems to have appeared from nowhere. This makes it all the more interesting when the café owner finds out that the kids have been reported missing. 

With gaps of information like that one, the story is told without directly being told. We are told about two kids lost in the city, about a café owner's moral dilemma, and about a mother's longing for her son, and we must connect the dots to figure out what is actually happening.

The detail I find most interesting is the mother's conviction that Macky is her son, Geraldo. We know that she is desperate to get her son back, but the question the story doesn't answer is whether or not she is aware that Macky is not her son. My interpretation is that she is aware, but is very delusional in her misery and chooses to ignore that fact. She has a gap in her life that can only be filled by her son, and conveniently, these two children, one of them a boy her son's age, happen to be wandering nearby. The mother is a very interesting character in this way; she is so deeply devoted to her delusions that she fights with the police over a little boy she doesn't actually know. It makes an interesting statement about the lengths to which people will go to heal heartbreak -- pretty damn far. The quote above is one that really hit me, and defines the mother's character well. All she wants is for her and her son to go home. The minor detail that Macky is not her son is irrelevant, because she is so desperate. It's sad and a bit crazy at the same time. 

True to its indirect style, the story leaves the ending open. You get the feeling that the mother has lost, but what will she do next? Will she simply continue looking for a replacement Geraldo? Will she herself get taken away by the police? And what about Sonya and Macky? My question from the start was why they were wandering in the first place -- did their parents forget them? Clearly there was somebody waiting for them, since the news that they were missing went out so quickly, but why were they alone in the first place?

"Seventeen Syllables" by Hisaye Yamamoto

"Rosie, covering her face, began at last to cry, and the embrace and consoling hand came much later than she expected."

This story paints an interesting picture of the effect that parents have on their children. The story starts off showing the disconnect between Rosie and her mother; their speaking different native languages is representative of their differing lifestyles and views. Throughout the story, Rosie witnesses trouble between her parents; her father does not very much approve of her mother's deep interest in haiku. What makes this conflict more interesting, though, is the fact that during all of this, Jesus reveals feelings for Rosie.

Rosie is very unclear and probably unsure as to whether or not she reciprocates Jesus' feelings. She runs away after he kisses her, and hides from him the next day when they are working. At first glance, this seems like a basic reaction to the girl's first romantic encounter, but the unsureness could also be representative of confusion caused by her parents' rocky relationship. 

Then, at the end, Rosie's mother tells her the unhappy story of how she ended up with her husband, and tells her never to marry, leading into the quote at the top of this post. Upon seeing that Rosie didn't quite agree with her mother's views, the mother comforts her daughter, but reluctantly. She had hoped she could pass on her wisdom as well as her language, but neither seemed to get through to Rosie, and that disappoints her.

Rosie's unsureness in her potential relationship with Jesus could have been caused by her parents' less-than-perfect relationship, exemplifying and somewhat serving as an allegory for the way the lives of the parents can influence those of their children.

The story also raises a question of art versus productivity, and different viewpoints of the world. Rosie's father shows strongly work-oriented opinions and values, while her mother places a strong value on the art of haikus. The two cannot seem to agree to disagree on the subject, and so allow it to become a rift between them. This is representative of how we as a society can't always seem to balance art with objective work, and must consider them separate things. There is often, in the modern world, a conflict between what we love to do and what we have to do. Many people struggle to balance or combine the two, much in the way Rosie's parents can't seem to come to a middle.