Two Stories

“Back Alleys”

Where do babies come from? Shockingly what I used to believe as a gullible five year old resurfaced in “Back Alleys.” This story begins with a man thinking he would find a baby in the dumpster, which sounds strangely familiar. I start to recall what my parents told the five-year-old me of my arrival twenty years ago. Apparently, I was discovered at a dumpster near my home by my dad. The story continues even more outlandishly.

Ok enough about my parents’ bizarre stories of human reproduction. I shall get back to analyzing “Back Alleys.” The confusing storyline jumps from discovering babies in dumpsters to the speaker’s experience as a foreigner being checked by police for legal residency. The incoherent story progresses from the protagonist’s near fatal attack by a flying rat to a bladder emergency to the death of his annoying neighbor. He continues to write in a stream of consciousness style when imagining his neighbor’s death. The story ends with him contemplating moving his friend Piero into the dead lady’s place.

This work of writing seems to be a mesh of thoughts that the writer pieced together as his mind wonders. It is him scribbling down a day’s random musings. What does it all mean? The dumpster baby, immigration issues, Moroccan boys, flying rats, and a dead neighbor? How or do they tie together to form a theme or message for this story?

“The B-Line”

I have lost count on the number of times I have read and reread this barely two-page story. The first time I read it, I was confused at where this place was. It could be on a bus, train, ship, or any kind of transportation. The stops gave me clues, specifically “San Paolo Basilica” and “Termini.” The speaker must be in Rome. Then my question shifted to the title, “The B-Line.” Could it be a mistake and actually mean “Bee Line?” Raised in the internet generation, I naturally googled B-Line. Google has yet to fail me. Once again, success as Wikipedia reveals that the Line B was the “first line of the Rome Metro to be built." The stops that this line contains are each referenced in the speaker’s writing. She first gets on at Eur Palasport and eventually ends at Termini.

After I figured out the bolded words of metro stops, my focus turned to the speaker’s reactions following the announcement of each station’s arrival. The reader knows what she is thinking, but she does not actually speak (to say that she speaks while on the metro). However, one can sense that she is searching for words, but cannot find any word to truly express the depth of her thoughts and emotions. She needs time to continue her search for those “perfect” words. Until then, I almost sense that she will remain silent. The silence refers not to speaking everyday language. Rather, it is an expression of her soul as she describes, “It takes a long time to penetrate the fabric of the soul” with the correct words. She has yet to find the right words, so she leaves (Termini—the end of all stops) “wordlessly.”