Finding yourself, the idea of looking for your place in this world is the eternal quest to figure out who or what we are going to become. In the urban collection of short stories ”El Bronx Remembered” author Nicolasa Mohr depicts two different sides of this. In “Uncle Claudio” he paints the picture on how ones past and old ways can effect adjusting to newfound lands. While in the other hand in “Herman and Alice” he demonstrates how personal identity quest can lead us toward the ones we love which won’t always stay. He continues to show this idea throughout both stories.
In “Herman and Alice” Mohr displays the fact that identity quests make us find those who love us, but this love won’t always stay. This story begins with Alice, a pregnant 15-year-old girl who doesn’t have a life after her child. As she is leaving the apartment that consists of her mother, brother and sister she meets Herman. Herman is a simple 30-year-old homosexual who lives alone in his one room apartment. Upon meeting Alice, Herman invites her for dinner in his home. Later that night in the apartment Alice: “closed her eyes for a moment, when satisfied that this was really happening she opened them once more”(184). She was amazed and wowed by the sights in the apartment. She saw astounding things such as the “bookcases, the vases with dried flowers, the nude figure of a male tortoise, and the painted wooden carvings ” are small wealth’s which she can’t have in her home. So when she sees all Herman’s got she sees him as a greater person than herself. Herman seems to like to surprise and amaze her. The fact that he invites her over shows that even before truly knowing her he truly cares for her. Also in this friendship that is forming won’t always be there. As the story progresses more home visits, more late nights and dinners occur. Then this friendship turns into love and they decide to marry. Herman realizes that Alice is that Alice is still just a young, foolish teenager, not the person he saw before. Alice realizes that Herman is using her in order to have a family that his sexuality doesn’t allow him to have. The top finally breaks when Alice comes home late from a party, leaving Herman alone to take care of the baby. The yells emerge, “you bitch, you filthy little tramp, I ought to-yells Herman, Fag, bastard, old fairy yells Alice” (230). Through these words they let out their true feelings for each other. Herman thinks Alice is just some immature girl who made a mistake. Alice realizes Herman is a confused, lonely, homosexual man who doesn’t know what to do with life. In my opinion this needed to happen because they’re both just using each other through the whole story. They cover this up by having dates and what not. Alice wanted to show her mom she can find a good man and Herman wanted to show his mom that he could make a family.
While in the other hand in “Uncle Claudio” Mohr shows how difficult is it to give up old ways in a new environment. Uncle Claudio comes from Puerto Rico to the USA for a better life. Yet he wants to move back to Puerto Rico due to an incident in the subway:” this guy is talking real loud and thanks him for firing his mother [who was a maid in Puerto Rico] because they came to the United States and are now doing very well” (136-137). He feels that through this incident he feels very disrespected, something, which he didn’t feel in his homelands before coming to America. This change for him is very hard to except. He responds to this by stating that in his land no maid’s son would ever talk to him in that manner. He has not adjusted to this urban environment since he comes from such rural lands. He doesn’t feel like Don Claudio in New York he feels like Don Nobody he concludes. He thinks in his mind that he doesn’t belong here. Also in another argument and Uncle Claudio responds “papi is losing his values here in New York and he would never want his kids to come here…there they know that their father is somebody” (138). He thinks that who he is in Puerto Rico is a better representation than who he is known as in New York. I believe he can try harder to try to adjust. He is giving up way to fast in my opinion. He hasn’t gotten the chance to grasp the pros of New York. He has seen the cons, which is why he wants to leave so early on. He knows that in his true home he is someone not just some other person in this big old planet. He doesn’t want change in his life.
As with all quests, they must have an end. Some may end in harmony others will end in pain. Throughout both thirst quenching short stories Nicolasa Mohr informs readers how many ways an idea can be twisted and shaped. He demonstrated how identity and finding yourself can be changed into many effects let them be neutral or positive which he likes to mix and match in his short stories. He also shows one how family relationships can affect us as a human being and also in looking for who we are and who we are going to become in the mere future. Through the characters Herman and Alice he shows how quest can lead us toward the ones we “love”. And through Uncle Claudio he lets readers know how old ways and ones heritage we are and will be affected for the rest of ones life. What he wants readers to take from thesis text is that as we grow older and try to find the meaning of our own lives we must never forget our past and look at those who say they care about us.