"Edison, New Jersey" Junot Diaz

“Edison, New Jersey”
Junot Diaz

“Most people don’t realize how sophisticated pool tables are. Yes, tables have bolts and staples on the rails but these suckers hold together mostly by gravity and by the precision of their construction. If you treat a good table right it will outlast you. Believe me. Cathedrals are built like that. There are Incan roads in Andes that even today you couldn’t work a knife between two of the cobblestones. The sewers that the Romans built in Bath were so good that they weren’t replaced until the 1950s. That’s the sort of thing I can believe in” (129).

The narrator of this story admires the types of tables that he builds because of their longevity. He takes pride in the fact that, if built right, the tables will last longer than their owners will. This passage is important to my interpretation of this short story because it provides insight into the narrator’s character and personality. The narrator lives a relatively stable life. Meaning, he doesn’t make a lot of money, but he gets by. He doesn’t know how to save money so he constantly finds himself on the edge of financial security and utter instability. His romantic life is also unstable and I did not interpret this story as a romantic love story. His girlfriend left him and has since married another man. The narrator neglects to reveal his feelings about his life because he takes pride in his complacency. Instead, readers see what he approves or disapproves of based on his interactions with his partner, Wayne. He disapproves of the fact that Wayne regularly cheats on his wife. He believes that he can treat women better than Wayne.
Although the narrator appears to be complacent with his life, the reader understands that he is anything but happy. He believes in things that are consistent and don’t change. Delivering and building pool tables is not satisfying work but it is consistent. The narrator makes references to the fact that his work schedule will always remain the same. That is to say, there will always be deliveries to make and disgruntled customers to deal with. The reader also knows that the narrator does not deal with loss or rejection well. When the narrator fears that he may lose his job, he gets drunk. The next day, when he is allowed to return to work, he is hungover. He also talks to his ex-girlfriend on a regular basis because he can’t let her go.
The narrator has such a deep appreciation for ancient structures that are stable to this day. He talks about the beauty in their longevity. Evidenced in the title as well as throughout the story, the narrator craves purpose and stability. Edison, New Jersey, the town that the narrator longs for at the end, is a middle class town with average incomes, average populations, average weather, and average crime rates. Nothing about the town is above or below average. The narrator wants to be there because of its longevity. Edison is consistently average and that’s what the narrator finds remarkable about it.

Edison, New Jersey
Township
Township of Edison

Nickname(s): "Birthplace of the Modern World"
Motto: "Let There Be Light"


Census Bureau map of Edison, New Jersey
Coordinates:  40.503991°N 74.349411°WCoordinates:  40.503991°N 74.349411°W[1][2]
Country
  United States of America
U.S. state
  New Jersey
County
Middlesex
Settled 1651
Incorporated
March 17, 1870 (as Raritan Township)
Renamed November 10, 1954 (as Edison Township)
Named for
Thomas Edison
Government[4]
 • Type Faulkner Act Mayor-Council
 • Mayor
Thomas Lankey (term ends December 31, 2017)
 • Clerk
Cheryl Russomanno (acting)[3]
Area[2]
 • Total 30.638 sq mi (79.351 km2)
 • Land 29.940 sq mi (77.543 km2)
 • Water 0.698 sq mi (1.808 km2)  2.28%
Area rank 88th of 566 in state
4th of 25 in county[2]
Elevation[5]
39 ft (12 m)
Population (2010 Census)[6][7][8]
 • Total 99,967
 • Estimate (2013)[9]
101,450
 • Rank 5th of 566 in state
1st of 25 in county[10]
 • Density 3,339.0/sq mi (1,289.2/km2)
 • Density rank 198th of 566 in state
15th of 25 in county[10]
Time zone
Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
 • Summer (DST)
Eastern (EDT) (UTC-4)
ZIP codes
08817, 08818, 08820, 08837, 08899[11][12]
Area code(s)
732 and 908[13]
FIPS code
3402320230[14][2][15]
GNIS feature ID
0882166[16][2]
Website www.edisonnj.org

"Cariboo Cafe"

The Cariboo Café

Helena Maria Viramontes

            “And I laugh at his ignorance. How stupid of him to think that I will let them take my Geraldo away just because he waves that gun like a flag. Well, to hell with you, you pieces of shit, do you hear me? Stupid, cruel pigs. To hell with you all, because you can no longer frighten me. I will fight you for my son until I have no hands left to hold a knife. I will fight you all because you’re farted out the devil’s ass, and you’ll not take us with you. I am laughing, howling at their stupidity because they should know by now that I will never let my son go” (79).

            This passage is unique to the story because the reader discovers that this story is so much more than the hardships of immigrant life in America. Not only is it difficult for the immigrants to move to a foreign country in which they cannot read, write, or speak the language, but it is also hard to raise a family in this foreign culture. The narrator of this passage struggles to adjust to her life in America because she can’t read or write. In addition, her son was taken from her. This passage describes the desperate despair that she is forced to endure. She takes these surrogate children as her own because she cannot cope with the loss of her son. Her son, Geraldo, was taken when she sent him down the street for a mango. The guilt that she feels in addition to her maternal instincts compel her to care for these children. Sonya and Macky are alone on the street because Sonya lost her key and their parents haven’t arrived home from work yet. They get lost trying to find their way back to their babysitter’s. When Geraldo’s mother finds them, she takes them in as her own to compensate for the care she could not give to her own son. Despite the missing child reports, the owner of the Cariboo Café neglects to inform the cops that he has seen the children because he views the mother figure as maternal and warm. The owner is also trying to compensate for the loss of his son by taking care of the stragglers and criminals that become the regulars at his café. He hasn’t been able to cope with the fact that his son was killed in Vietnam so he over compensates with others.

            When the police arrive at the café, the narrator’s maternal instincts kick into overdrive as she desperately tries to defend herself and “her children.” She is rude and impulsive. Her anger consumes her and she can no longer think rationally. In the end, the police kill her and she comments that she is going home to her son. She is finally given the opportunity to be home with her son.

Is it possible that her plan was to be killed all alone? When she spoke earlier in the story, she said that she was too weak to take her own life. It would make sense that she sees Sonya and Macky as an opportunity not to provide maternity, but as to finally reunite with her son.

"Seventeen Syllables"

Seventeen Syllables

Hisaye Yamamoto

            “See, Rosie, she said, it was a haiku, a poem in which she must pack all her meaning into seventeen syllables only, which were divided into three lines of five, seven, and five syllables. In the one she had just read, she had tried to capture the charm of a kitten, as well as comment on the superstition that owning a cat of three colors meant good luck” (21).

           

 

            This passage is important because Rosie’s mother is explaining the significance of a haiku poem. Haiku poems are important to the meaning of this story because poets have to purposefully choose their words. They have only seventeen syllables to convey a meaning to a poem. As a result, there is a lot of information that the poets are forced to either neglect or sublimely imply to the reader. The poet must be confident that the reader will understand the subtext. In Mrs. Hayashi’s haiku, she wants the reader to understand both the kitten’s charm and the superstition that multi colored cats are good luck.

            Similarly, Rosie’s mother, Mrs. Hayashi, wants Rosie to look at everything on the surface level for the basic interpretation, and on a deeper level for the deeper meaning. Rosie views everything as it is- “comme il faut.” This phrase literally translates as “like it is necessary” but it is commonly translated as “correct in behavior.” Rosie looks at everything from innocent childhood eyes in a sense. However, her mother teaches Rosie to appreciate the form of the haiku poem. It is important to look at the underlying meaning of things.

When her mother begins writing her poetry, Rosie starts to notice a change in her dad’s behaviors. She never explicitly states why her dad is behaving this way. In a way, this narrative resembles a haiku because the narrator is limited in scope of what she can say. Rosie doesn’t truly understand why her dad is behaving this way. She sees the first outburst at their friends’ house when Mrs. Hayashi is writing poetry with her friends. Her father violently reacts a second time when his wife wins a prize for her writing. Rosie doesn’t understand why her father hates her mother’s writing. At the end of the story, Rosie and the reader realize that the marriage was arranged. Once Rosie learns that her father and mother were arranged to be married years ago, the reader is left to discern deeper understandings. The reader now understands that Rosie’s father doesn’t want his wife to be writing poetry because she will learn to express herself and tell her story. The reader is expected to treat this narrative as a haiku and discern the deeper meaning.