Multiethnic Literatures in the U.S.

While waiting for Patterson, head administrator of Ivy Acres, Jerry comes across an animal show. It’s one he’s seen before about two lions, Red and Nero. Red is the “crusty old male lion” and dominant male of the pride (304). He is properly named Red because of the color of his mane. Nero is “a very large mature young male.” Nero comes into Red’s territory and makes himself a new candidate for king. They have a battle and Red is mauled and eventually dies. Nero is the new king. This show that Jerry is watching is very similar to the situation between him, Rita, and Richie, but with a different outcome. Jerry is Red, Richie is Nero, and the territory represents Rita.

Jerry and Red are both the older opponents in the struggle for the prize. Just as Red was the leader of the pride and the lair for a long time, Jerry and Rita were in a relationship for a long time. Red showed “his appreciation of the hunting prowess of his lionesses by serving them sexually whenever they are in heat and then spending the rest of his time power-dozing.” That is just like Jerry in the sense that he does what is told to do by Rita and nothing more. The only time he does something without being asked is when it benefits him.

When Nero comes to the territory, he “[makes] a show of himself as an electable new king.” He shows of that he is strong and young. Although Richie is not much younger than Jerry, he does show off his fortunes. He shows Rita that he is the better than Jerry as a partner for her. He shows off his mansion, his large property, and his many cars. When talking to Jerry, Richie confesses to him that he felt that he needed all his material fortunes to attract and keep a woman.

In the show, there is an unseen battle between Red and Nero. The battle is represented in the book as the tennis match. Richie and Jerry have a tennis match where if Richie wins, he gets Jerry’s ’67 Impala and Donnie and if Jerry wins, he gets Richie’s ’92 Ferrari. There is also the underlying incentive of Rita. There is the impression that the winner will win her affections. During the match Jerry gets injured just as Red did. This is where the two differ. The outcome of the lion’s tale is Red is mauled and eventually dies, being eaten by a pack of hyenas, making Nero the new leader of the territory. In the case of the novel, Jerry wins the material goods but the more important reward. He gets the Ferrari and keeps his car and Donnie. The more important prize is not for certain Jerry’s to claim. He goes to return the Ferrari and learns that Richie and Rita have broken up. With that new information, he goes to Rita’s and they begin to make love. Their relationship is not yet restored but there is the possibility.

The two stories have very similar ideas and events. Red and Jerry are the older leaders while Nero and Richie are the younger possible new leaders. In both cases they are fighting for something, whether it is land or love. The conclusions slightly differ in that Nero wins the land and Jerry wins the material possessions but not yet the love of Rita.

Mother Or Child

An interesting part of the plot so far in this book is the situation with Theresa and her family. The situation being Theresa is pregnant and being diagnosed with a cancerous or cancer-like disease. I just thought it was interesting because I started to wonder what I would decide to do if I had to choose between the life of an unborn child and my own life. So far Theresa has seemed to choose her child’s life over hers and wants to wait for her child to be born before taking any kind of treatment for her illness. Her fiancé Paul and Jerry seem to want Theresa to start treatment right away and worry about her life instead of the baby. At first this seemed like a cruel thing to say, but after thinking about it from the perspective of Paul and Jerry it seems pretty reasonable. To the men Theresa is real to them and already has life, but the baby is not. After seeing multiple doctors she seems to have accepted that there is a good chance that she will not start her treatment in time. She sort of shows this when she is talking to Jerry at the Dairy Queen and asks him to take care of Paul in case anything happens. I’m sure that making that kind of decision is different for women and men because of the baby actually developing in the woman. How Theresa handle this situation explains a lot about her character. Although it takes two people to create a child she chooses to exclude her fiancée in all of this. She does not tell Paul much about what happens to her and even tells her doctors not to tell him anything as well. Also she doesn’t even explain anything to her father who you would expect her to talk to even if their relationship isn’t the best. At first it seems that she is an independent person and wants to handle the situation on her own, but it sort of seems like she might already know the outcome if she chooses to have the baby before having her treatment and doesn’t want to worry her family. When Theresa and Jerry are at the Dairy Queen Jerry finally asks what is going on and tells Theresa he wants to be a part of what she’s going through and she seems to finally give in and explain to him her morning sickness and about her red blood cell count. After telling Jerry that she vomited blood that morning, Jerry tells her to call the doctor right then and there, but Theresa refuses saying she’s going to see another doctor soon anyway and the doctor was probably going to say the same thing as the rest of the doctors anyway. Theresa seems to have already accepted that there might be a chance she won’t be able to live too long after the baby is born if she can even make it that long. Jerry has finally confronted Theresa about her illness and the baby after leaving her alone for a while and I wonder if Paul will ever come out and confront this situation. It seems that Theresa is still in the early stages of her pregnancy so there is a chance she might end up giving up the baby in order to receive treatment. My prediction is that Theresa will have the baby and she’ll be able to survive too, just so that the book has a happy ending.