Culture Isolates Lost In Mommy's Speak

James shows that culture isolates people through the theme of feeling lost using simile. James asked his mother a question after she started talking gibberish to the Hasidic Jewish merchants for staring at her and her six children she tells James, “Never ask questions or your mind will end up like a rock” (McBride 86). Mommy was speaking Yiddish which was the language spoken by Jews and she never liked when James asked questions about her culture. He felt lost within himself trying to piece things together, not knowing his identity or his mother’s past. Mommy started telling James her past life when James states, “She opened the door for me but closed it for herself long ago, and for her to crack it open and peek inside was like eating fire”