The Sunset
Death comes at sunset in “The Moths.” That is a simple declarative description of what occurs. The difference in power between descriptive literal prose and the intensification through imagery is realized in one of the author’s most astonishing displays of this literary technique:
“There comes a time when the sun is defiant. Just about the time when moods change, inevitable seasons of a day, transitions from one color to another, that hour or minute or second when the sun is finally defeated, finally sinks into the realization that it cannot with all its power to heal or burn, exist forever, there comes an illumination where the sun and earth meet, a final burst of burning red orange fury…it was probably then that she died.”
The End of the Line
“The Cariboo Café” is a multi-level story about illegal immigrants and the law finally catching up to them (with, of course, a more than generous helping from the public doing their job for them). A woman and two children are desperately running for escape in the part of the worst section of town: the end of the line not just for immigrants. The imagery throughout paints a portrait of their desperation as a descent into the labyrinth of the underworld:
“They entered a maze of alleys and dead ends, the long, abandoned warehouses shadowing any light…Her mouth was parched and she swallowed to rid herself of the metallic taste of fear. The shadows stalked them, hovering like nightmares. Across the tracks, in the distance, was a room with a yellow glow, like a beacon light at the end of a dark sea. She pinched Macky’s nose with the corner of her dress, took hold of his sleeve. At least the shadows will be gone, she concluded, at the zero-zero place.”
“Miss Clairol”
The protagonist of “Miss Clairol” is Arlene, a Latina who has bought totally into the concept that the best way to find happiness in America is as a blonde. Or, if that doesn’t work, a redhead. Anything but the dull reality of the color hair you were born with. Assimilation into the dominant culture is the important thing, and by culture, of course, is meant what the message that the media has decided at that moment. Having sacrificed her only identity for a never-ending string of new identities, Arlene now has no identity and, worse, she is passing this idea down to the next generation:
For the last few months she has been a platinum "Light Ash" blond, before that a Miss Clairol "Flame" redhead, before that Champ couldn't even identify the color somewhere between orange and brown, a ''Sun Bronze." The only way Champ knows her mother's true hair color is by her roots which, like death, inevitably rise to the truth.
Fourteen Going on Twenty-One
The idea of growing up in the story “Growing” is focused almost exclusively on burgeoning sexuality. The story is ostensibly about the relationship between fourteen-year-old Naomi and her youngest sister, but it is really about Naomi and her younger self. A lot has changed in just a few years and imagery of the lure which brought her into the trap which has resulted in in the punishment of having a kid sister as a constant parental spy and chaperone explains exactly what that change is:
“a Letterman Senior whose eyes, she remembered with a soft smile, sparkled like crystals of brown sugar. She sighed deeply as she recalled the excitement she experienced when she first became aware that he was following them from booth to booth. Joe’s hair was greased back and his dimples were deep. When he finally handed her a stuffed rabbit he had won pitching dimes, she knew she wanted him”.
