Passage Analysis

“It was the middle of the night, and Mom bolted out of the car and ran into the darkness.

‘You crazy bitch!’ Dad hollered. ‘Get your goddamn ass back in this car!’

‘You make me, Mr. Tough Guy!’ she screamed as she ran away.

Dad jerked the steering wheel to one side and drove off the road into the desert after her. Lori, Brian, and I braced one another with our arms, like we always did when Dad went on some wild chase that we knew would get bumpy.

Dad stuck his head out the window as he drove, hollering at Mom, calling her a ‘stupid whore’ and a ‘stinking cunt’ and ordering her to get back into the car. Mom refused. She was ahead of us, bobbing in and out of the desert brush. Since she never used curse words, she was calling Dad names like ‘blanket-blank’ and ‘worthless drunk so-and-so’. Dad stopped the car, then jammed down the accelerator and popped the clutch. We shot forward toward Mom, who screamed and jumped out of the way. Dad turned around and went for her again.

 It was a moonless night, so we couldn’t see Mom except when she ran into the beam of the headlights. She kept looking over her shoulder, her eyes wide like a hunted animal’s. WE kids cried and begged Dad to stop, but he ignored us. I was even more worried about the baby inside Mom’s swollen belly than I was about her. The car bounced on holes and rocks, brush scratching against its sides and dust coming through the open windows. Finally, Dad cornered Mom against some rocks. I was afraid he might smush her with car, but instead he got out and dragged her back, legs flailing, and threw into the car. We banged back through the desert and onto the road. Everyone was quiet except Mom, who was sobbing that she really did carry Lori for fourteen months.

Mom and Dad made up the next day, and by late afternoon Mom was cutting Dad’s hair in the living room of the apartment we’d rented in Blythe. He’d taken off his shirt and was sitting backward on a chair with his head bowed and his hair combed forward. Mom was snipping away while Dad pointed out the parts that were still too long. When they were finished, Dad combed his hair back and announced that Mom had done a helluva fine shearing job.” (43)

On page 43, Jeanette’s mother stops the car and leaves it and starts running into the desert after arguing with Jeanette’s father about how long she is pregnant with their new kid. As she runs, Jeanette’s dad curses at her and tries to ram the car into her. After cornering her against some rocks he gets out the car and drags her back in to the car. The whole time, Jeanette’s father was drunk: “Dad, who had fixed someone’s transmission earlier that day and used the money he’d made to buy a bottle of tequila…” (42). This page also indicates that the children’s dad has gotten drunk and driven crazily before:  “Lori, Brian, and I braced one another with our arms, like we always did when Dad went on some wild chase that we know would get bumpy” (43). After this scene, Jeanette writes that the two made up the next day when her dad was sober: “Mom and Dad made up the next day and by late afternoon Mom was cutting Dad’s hair in the living room apartment we’d rented in Blythe” (43).

This relates to the connotation I’ve made for the title and how the metaphor seems to be referring to the Jeanette’s family and how obvious their issues are, like her dad spending a lot of their money on alcohol and getting drunk and putting the rest of them at risk by doing things like driving unsafely, and how those issues are neglected and never calmly talked about and attempted to be fixed. It just ends with something like Jeanette’s mother doing what pleases her husband and doing something for him after they “make up” like doing his hair or the kids just agreeing with whatever he’s told them instead of forming their own opinion. This scene also makes one wonder about the parents’ relationship with the children. In the beginning of the book when Jeanette got badly burned from cooking hot dogs unsupervised, Jeanette describes her mom as, “unnaturally calm” (9-10) when she went to a neighbor to ask for help in bringing Jeanette to the hospital. But when Jeanette’s dad called the kids freaks of nature because she argued she stays pregnant longer than most women, Jeanette’s mother got so upset she left the car. This suggests that Jeanette’s mother may have taken the insult more to herself than her children and got upset because of that. 

Word Count: 402