Term Paper on "Los Angeles Preface / Introduction"

Term Paper 8 pages (2637 words) Sources: 10 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Los Angeles

PREFACE / INTRODUCTION

Los Angeles, California is the backdrop for great wealth and great poverty. Much of the literature emerging from this culture and environment focuses on the wealthy of its inhabitants, the stark contrast between the wealthy and the poor, the class divide, or the artificial nature of its buildings and environment. Although the city is alive with a wild diversity of cultures and art forms that many will consider "rich," there is one common theme that unites all of them. The wealthy, the poor, the artistic, the simple, the American, and the alien are all united by a sense of human suffering.

As will be seen, this suffering may take many forms. For some, it is the suffering of understanding that they will never truly be part of the wealthy world they see around themselves every day. For others, suffering is as simple as the loss of a family member, friend, or lover. For others, it is the understanding that there will always be a division between the rich, the poor, and the various classes and cultures of the city. This suffering then relates to a sense of powerlessness, where, despite the stinging awareness of the division and the wish to help unite the people of Los Angeles or at least help the poor have a better life, the individual simply cannot do anything to alleviate the suffering. This in itself leads to its own type of suffering.

Another common theme in the literature to be discussed is the artificial nature of the wealth displayed by the upper classes. The houses, cars, art, and Christmas decorations are all artificial presentations that is so far removed from the reality that they do not even pretend to be real.

Nevertheless, all the main characters, and some minor characters in the works to be discuss take part in a type of suffering that makes them human. This is equally true for the 40-year-old grandmother who starts her life in Los Angeles as an illegal alien who washes houses to get her papers and for the homosexual professor who suffers extreme grief when his lover dies, as well as the rich mother who pines for a son who never phones her. Despite the divisions of class, labor, and wealth, Los Angeles is a community that is bound together by its humanity and by the suffering that makes all its inhabitants human.

JAMES M. CAIN, MILDRED PIERCE (1941)

"And she was afraid of something that seemed always lurking under Veda's bland, phony toniness: a cold, cruel, coarse desire to torture her mother, to humiliate her, above everything else, to hurt her" (86).

The above quotation focuses on Mildred, Veda's mother who has just entered a new position as waitress. Veda, however, calls to attention the extreme segregation that the novel underlines between what it means to be part of the upper classes and the working class. Clearly, Veda considers herself as part of the former. This type of segregation focuses on family members, despite being of the same blood, who consider themselves different as a result of their position in society. In terms of Los Angeles, this also shows the extreme differences between those who display themselves as rich and those who are obliged to do work such as waiting tables to make ends meet. Still, suffering unites these two groups as human beings, which is a greater truth than that of wealth.

"Because you are a goddam varlet, and you're afraid to have people come there, because you wouldn't know what to do about them -- you just haven't got the nerve" (196).

These words make clear that Veda's snobbery is not only the result of what she considers her status or wealth in life. Instead, it is the result of her own uncertainty and suffering. The above reveals that Veda never has guests, because she feels fundamentally insecure. Even while regarding herself as an important, upper class person, Veda is also painfully aware of her roots that set her apart from the class she so desperately wants to be part of. This desire unites Veda, Monty, and Mildred. Their suffering lies in the fact that they do not believe in their deepest hearts that they are worthy to belong to these upper classes. Apparently, they are unaware that suffering joins all human beings, regardless of class divide. In Los Angeles, suffering unites the rich and poor as human beings rather than wealthy and poor.

KAREN TEI YAMASHITA, TROPIC OF ORANGE (1997)

"…copy the pictures other kids painted in tempera, two brown strokes for a trunk and that green amorphous do on topi, sometime with red dots they called apples. Never saw one of those in the neighborhood. It was a puzzlement. No trees in this city desert." (p. 32)

This extract focuses, like so many other works on Los Angeles, on the contrast between the artificial and the situation as it truly is. The art referred to here paints an idealistic but artificial picture as the artist might view the world or perhaps would like to view the world. It is not, however, the world that is in this environment.

In the same way, the extreme wealth that is evident in Los Angeles and its inhabitants creates a sense of the artificial. People hide, like recluses, in their homes and cars, only coming away to ingest the artificially produced food offered by McDonald's and other fast food restaurants, whereas the true suffering remains unaddressed. Nevertheless, characters like Manzanar offer a reminder that this humanity is never far away and can be accessed by means of loss and suffering.

Both the poor and the rich suffer as a result of their innate humanity, regardless of how much they attempt to deny this. This is the connecting factor between the lack of feeling displayed by those who live their lives as artificial creations and those who suffer more continuously. There is no copying possible in suffering.

"In moments such as these, the mechanical and the human elements of Manzanar's orchestra became blurred. The car became a thing with intellgience. He envisioned the person within as the pulpy brain of each vehicle…" (p. 208).

Manzanar represents the stark contrast between the rich and the poor of Los Angeles. As in any other Western city or country, this contrast is very stark, but nevertheless seems to be all but ignored by the rich and powerful, who can in fact do something about it. This is a theme that is seen throughout Yamashita's novel. Still, there is an added dimension to this, because it is Los Angeles and not any other Western city.

Manzanar not only shows the contrast between the levels of wealth in the city, but also the artificial nature of this wealth. He is the connection between the artificial and the humanity that is beneath. By "conducting" traffic, Manzanar has found a way to communicate with the alien world of the wealthy. He has no wealth, but uses his status in life to connect with a society that has become as artificial as the cars, homes, and money they possess. In this way, he also succeeds in connecting them to the remaining humanity of the city. Underneath all the wealth and artificial glimmer of the city, there is still humanity and suffering. Suffering is what unites all its inhabitants.

YXTA MAYA MURRAY, LOCAS (1997)

"She came over here from Oaqxaca, pregnant and holding on to Manny's little fist so he wouldn't get away. He was loco even then. 'I must have washed five hundred houses before we got our papers,' is what Mama says. 'Better than having nothing to eat but dirt.' We're all legal now but I'm the real American. I was born here red white and blue." (p. 4)

The above opening lines demonstrate the alienation not only of the inhabitants of LA from their surroundings, but also from each other in terms of class. The narrator begins by telling the story of his mother's move to the United States as an illegal alien. The necessity to "wash houses" in order to become legal shows the extreme divide not only between the classes, but also between the rich and the poor. Yet the narrator considers himself a "real American," which also demonstrates a divide within families themselves, where being American is somehow better than being anything else, regardless of suffering and alienation.

"I wash them fancy houses and smile at the rich rubias who can't say my name... even if I want to smack them across the teeth I just smile and get down on the floor to scrub and sweat and wash all that dirt off, bending my head modest just like a woman should" (226).

This extract is highly reminiscent of the opening lines of the novel, even though it appears much later and with much more emotion. The two passages solidify the alienation the cleaning woman feels from the wealth that surrounds her. She is not… READ MORE

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