Multiethnic Literatures in the U.S.

In the second half of In the Heart of the Valley of Love, there is a strong sense of time and a pang of wanting to be remembered. From the mentioning of typing has become a lost art, the star-spangled banner being played on the tv, days spent by the lake in the boathouse, Auntie Annie’s shopping spree memories, and to Nadine’s speech on never forgetting because it makes who you are, everything has become ephemeral but everyone is still seeking some type of permanence.

When mentioning Aunt Annie, it was all about how it used to be when going to the shopping mall was the norm. Now though, remembering and trying to reenact those times just brings about a strong sadness that those times are gone. Even Madeline, with all her beautiful beads, creates beautiful beaded necklaces for herself only to be never worn. And those beads are counted continuously only to be inventoried and later sold off.

For Francie and Mark, they decide to get tattoos with Francie choosing a vine around her wrist. The wine visually is just a circle, which also represents infinity, with no end and no beginning. And when you think of tattoos, you think of permanence, but even Carl the artist remarks on how the color will eventually fade in ten years. Not even the tattoos will last. This goes to show that nothing lasts, not even the structure society collapses. However, it is interesting to note that while it is 2052 in LA, these stories could easily, tragically, have been told within present-day Los Angeles. Jewel is trapped in an abusive affair, people behind walls argue and brawl, the people on the street carry guns, random violence is rampant.

In the book, “In the Heart of the Valley of Love,” two relationships can be compared to that of Jewel and Teddy: Lily’s parents and Nadine and Geoffrey. Jewel is Francie’s friend who also works at the campus newspaper as the managing editor and Teddy is her boyfriend. Lily was Francie’s friend growing up in Chicago, whose father used to beat her mother until she left him. Nadine is Francie’s cousin and her boyfriend was Geoffrey.
It is known to Francie as well as others that Teddy had beaten Jewel in the past yet she still bailed him out of jail because she felt that she owed him. As she said, “sometimes he’s lent me money when I really needed it, and whenever I’ve been desperately unhappy he’s put aside what he was doing to be with me” (68). Despite the fact that he beat her, she still felt that she loved him. When talking about the situation of Lily’s parents, Francie talked about how she and Lily used to try and please Lily’s father after he beat her mother. They would clean the kitchen, hoping for some acknowledgment from Lily’s abusive father. She compared that to Jewel bailing out Teddy. Jewel tried to please Teddy, hoping for some recognition.
Later, after getting her tattoo, Francie, Mark, and Carl had a talk with Jewel because she was upset. Jewel suspected that Teddy was cheating on her with another woman. Mark was appalled because he felt that she was wrongfully troubled because he was hurting someone else rather than her. As they have the talk, Francie again remembers Lily and her parents. In her head, Francie said “I didn’t know what kind of world this was, where a violent man’s infidelity might hurt a woman more than his beatings” (133). Her thought reigns true for the situation that Jewel was in. She was sad that he beat her but even more sad that he was with another woman.
The way Francie saw the relationship between her cousin Nadine and her boyfriend, Geoffrey, was similar to Jewel and Teddy’s relationship. Nadine lived with Francie in Chicago when Francie was 11 and Nadine was 17. She was going out with Geoffrey, a boy three years older. One night, they were arguing and Francie wondered. She said, “Maybe they were falling out of love but didn’t want to. Maybe they were falling more in love and couldn’t handle it” (155). That can be compared to Jewel and Teddy. They said that they were in love with each other, but they didn’t act like it. Jewel said she stayed with Teddy because he had a mansion in his head and he said he liked the fact that it was a challenge to control her. It cannot be fully known whether they truly do love each other.

In the book Mark and Francie argue about what they consider to be right and wrong when they were spying on the school administrator that supposedly was involved with a student that was a prostitute. The author has Mark and Francie having this conversation twice in the book so far, once on page 85 then again on page 147. In the first discussion that Francie and Mark have, Francie claims that what the administrator is doing is a conflict of interest and when Mark asks her what that exactly means she says she doesn’t know, but says that what the administrator is doing is wrong. Mark thinks that not everything is considered right or wrong and says it depends on the situation and sometimes it doesn’t even matter whether something a person did was right or wrong. The second time this occurs Francie and Mark see the administrator at the beach with a young man. Francie says that if the young man was a student then what the administrator was doing was a conflict of interest and the young man could be looking for some kind of advantages. Mark says nothing to this in the book, but Francie in a way talks for him by describing what she thought Mark believed. She says that Mark believes that every world has their own set of morals and there are many different worlds. Since Francie uses the term conflict of interest again she seems to
Francie seems to be a person that has her ideas of right and wrong built into her like she just believes the things that she was told is true. Mark compared her idea of right and wrong to the laws of physics saying that Francie thinks that there are set lists of actions that are considered right and wrong. This kind of morals seems to be the kind of things that are built in and not really questioned. When asked what she meant by a conflict of interest she says she doesn’t know and just considers the administrator to be wrong. She does not think about the situation that the people might be in like Mark does and just judges what is going on purely on what is happening. Mark on the other hand thinks that right and wrong are flexible depending on what the person is going through. He uses the example of stealing money from parents as an example to explain that there isn’t a set of morals for everyone to believe in. Mark asks if a child steals money from his parents should he tell his parents that he took it and Francine says yes, then he adds what if they were going to hit the child should he still tell and Francine says no if they’re going to hit the child. This is the flexibility in right and wrong that Mark Believes. As Francie described it there are many worlds with its own set of morals. A different world could mean a different person so many different worlds with their own sets of morals can mean that every person has a different idea of what is right and wrong.
Most people if not all seem to be a Mark or a Francie. People like Francie have right and wrong built into them and that think that certain things are just wrong. Others are like Mark who believes that everyone has their own set of morals and the belief of right and wrong are different for different people. Although Francie believed that the boy in Mark’s example should have told his parents about the money she then said he shouldn’t when Mark added that the boy was threatened. It seems the line between right and wrong seem very blurred whether you are a Mark or a Francie.