Love In L. A. Dagoberto Gilb Analysis

As I looked at the title I thought to myself that this was going to be a fun read with a happy ending. I always thought of L.A. as the place where dreams come true, so “Love in L.A.” sounded like two people falling in love in the glam and glitter of L.A. A perfect title for a perfect short story.
Dagoberto Gilb starts out “Love in L.A.,” with the narrator, Jake, stuck in traffic. Like every other person who is bored in traffic, Jake lets his mind wander, thinking about various things. He thought about how it was better to be stuck in traffic than to try making a left onto the onramp. This made me think about happy-go-lucky people who look towards the brighter side in every situation. Then Jake moves on to think about his steady occupation, which makes me wonder if that’s where he was headed? But he was very relaxed about being stuck in traffic, so it didn’t seem as though he had to get somewhere urgently.
“It would have crushed velvet interior with electric controls for the L.A. summer, a nice warm heater and defroster for the winter drives at the beach, a cruise control for those longer trips, mellow speakers front and rear of course, windows that hum closed, snuffing out that nasty exterior noise of freeways” (1). That sounds like one perfect car. As it so often happens, Jake figures that if he has a stylish car, he should also have a stylish lifestyle to go along with it, which leads him to dream about that as well. Colognes, nightclubs, maitais and daiquiris, sexy ladies, etc. OMG, all men are the