AI ToolsNew
Tools to make learning and teaching easier
Wab's Coming-To Story
Explanation and Analysis—Loss of Innocence:
In "Wab's Coming-to Story," Wab finally chooses to relate her personal history to an audience of older family members, Frenchie included. Her story is a grotesque one, filled with drug abuse, maternal neglect, and physical and sexual assault. Immediately after recounting her traumatic rape and disfigurement, the flashback cuts out, returning the reader to Frenchie's immediate surroundings:
And the dick who set up the run, who handed over the Danishes and scurried off into the alleyways, that was the man I saw a week ago in the woods. I’m sure of it.
“IS HE COMING to take Wab back to the bad guys?"
I jumped at the small voice behind me, pitched high with terror. RiRi had crept into the room.
The fact that RiRi was listening in on the flashback is immediately apparent: she cries out, "is he coming to take Wab back to the bad guys?" This rapid cut from reminiscence to present-day reflects the harsh immediacy of RiRi's lost innocence, breaking the adults and teenagers out of the stupor of memory and reminiscence. Tragically, it is this man from Wab's past who ends up having a hand in RiRi's death. Her reaction, and her lost naivety, foreshadows her heartbreaking death.
Related Themes:
On the Road
Explanation and Analysis—Love in Wartime:
"On the Road" represents a short interlude in the midst of Frenchie's mission to find Minerva. The stakes for Frenchie and his family could not be higher: they are charging head-on into imminent danger, unsure what pursues them or what awaits them. In the midst of all this, "On the Road" provides much needed levity in the form of relationship development, centered on Frenchie's blooming romance with Rose. This interlude features a flashback:
I pulled at [Rose's] legs until she fell to my side, and I reached, taking as much of her as I could in my too-skinny arms, pulling her into my chest, warm from the bundle burning there. There were sounds now that came from a memory of my uncle. My uncle and his old stereo and his army of battered CDs lined up on the kitchen counter, two stacks of cooking pots as bookends.
While he kisses and embraces Rose, caught up in the joy and love of the moment, Frenchie flashes back to another moment in which he felt love and belonging. He recalls listening to Pearl Jam with his uncle, back when his mother, father, and brother were still alive and present in his life. This flashback highlights the sustaining power of finding moments of love and happiness in the midst of horrific circumstances—even if that means harkening back to the past.
Related Themes:
