Essay 1 Dagoberto Gilb
Ifeanyi Nwagbologu
February 3, 2014
English 1102-402 Analytic Writing
White Lies in L.A.
Dagoberto Gilb’s short story, deceiving titled “Love in L.A.”, paints a portrait of a hilarious event involving a minor car accident on the jam-packed Los Angeles freeway. When first reading the title, you automatically start making assumptions that this story has something to do with how a couple finds “Love in L.A.”. This story has nothing to do with love, in fact it has nothing to do with a minor car accident; it has more to do with our high valued thoughts which our minds fantasize and make life full of lies and illusions. We all like to fantasize and wish we had something’s we don’t necessarily have now, but Jake takes it a little too far. We are presented with the main character, Jake, in the first sentence of the story as he is “slouched in a clot of near motionless traffic” (Gilb 43). Jake’s mind, left to wonder, jolts to the fantasies and luxuries he desired to obtain. He is mentally creating his quest to the eventual, lavish lifestyle he has fantasized. He needs something better than his ’58 Buick of his. Something with an FM radio, a crush velvet interior, cruise control for those long trips, a warm heater and defroster for the winter drives at the beach, and the list goes on. The only problem with that is that he would practically need to change his whole entire life style, “Exotic colognes, plush, dark nightclubs, mai tais and daiquiris, necklaced ladies in satin gowns, misty and sexy like in a tequila ad” (Gilb 43). These all fall in to play with his fantasyland, ideal lifestyle. Jake, thinking about his freedom so much that when he caught a glimpse of his free will “ he just went ahead and stared bye-bye to the steadily employed” (Gilb 43). As Jake turned his head back to same direction of traffic, it was one second too late to react. He slammed on his brakes and tried to steer the car away from the car in front of him, as the brake lights got closer and
February 3, 2014
English 1102-402 Analytic Writing
White Lies in L.A.
Dagoberto Gilb’s short story, deceiving titled “Love in L.A.”, paints a portrait of a hilarious event involving a minor car accident on the jam-packed Los Angeles freeway. When first reading the title, you automatically start making assumptions that this story has something to do with how a couple finds “Love in L.A.”. This story has nothing to do with love, in fact it has nothing to do with a minor car accident; it has more to do with our high valued thoughts which our minds fantasize and make life full of lies and illusions. We all like to fantasize and wish we had something’s we don’t necessarily have now, but Jake takes it a little too far. We are presented with the main character, Jake, in the first sentence of the story as he is “slouched in a clot of near motionless traffic” (Gilb 43). Jake’s mind, left to wonder, jolts to the fantasies and luxuries he desired to obtain. He is mentally creating his quest to the eventual, lavish lifestyle he has fantasized. He needs something better than his ’58 Buick of his. Something with an FM radio, a crush velvet interior, cruise control for those long trips, a warm heater and defroster for the winter drives at the beach, and the list goes on. The only problem with that is that he would practically need to change his whole entire life style, “Exotic colognes, plush, dark nightclubs, mai tais and daiquiris, necklaced ladies in satin gowns, misty and sexy like in a tequila ad” (Gilb 43). These all fall in to play with his fantasyland, ideal lifestyle. Jake, thinking about his freedom so much that when he caught a glimpse of his free will “ he just went ahead and stared bye-bye to the steadily employed” (Gilb 43). As Jake turned his head back to same direction of traffic, it was one second too late to react. He slammed on his brakes and tried to steer the car away from the car in front of him, as the brake lights got closer and
Cited: Gilb, Dagoberto. “Love in L.A.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 2014. 43-45. Print.