Theme Of Manhood In Ed Lin's Waylaid '
Laura Lee
ENGL139T
Professor Yamamoto
Waylaid
Ed Lin’s Waylaid is narrated by a twelve year old Chinese American boy who is on the brink of adolescence. The protagonist struggles to grow up as he helps his parents run a sleazy motel on the New Jersey Coast while catering to a variety of different men throughout the season such as old men in the winter to the Bennys in the summer. He struggles to grow up in the overly sexual environment as he loses his grip on concepts of friendship, family and most importantly his childhood. Throughout the entire novel, the narrator is on a quest to lose his virginity in order to assert his manhood. He begins to associate masculinity to Americanness and tries to prove his manhood as he struggles to create …show more content…
At the young age of twelve, he asserts, “I was about 12 years old when I knew that I had to get laid soon. No more of this jerking off. That was for fags.” (1). The narrator is seemingly burdened by his virginity and is motivated by the desire to lose it as quickly as possible. Even at a young age, he associates getting laid to being masculine. He associates virgins to “fags” who are usually known to be non-masculine as he displays homophobia. Losing one’s virginity is a metaphor of fitting in and being accepted while growing up and integrating into adulthood as the narrator’s sense of self-worth is crippled because he is still a virgin. Vincent, one of the Bennys who frequent the motel, is the narrator’s model as he is hyper sexual and has plenty of experience with women. Vincent is everything that the narrator wishes to be for sexual activity is closely linked to masculinity and he exudes masculinity. The narrator contrasts himself, a Chinese immigrant, to Vincent, an American, as he compares Vincent’s “pair of tight black trunks and aquarium blue flip flops” to his own “imitation leather slippers from Taiwan [that] left threads on the top of [his] feet” (2). No matter how hard the narrator tries, he seems to be different from the Bennys and cannot associate himself to their culture. Vincent continues to push the narrator as he begins to feel inferior to him as he explains, “I feel like such a loser when Vincent talked about girls. Vincent always talked about his fucking adventures” (4). The narrator fantasizes about sex escapades and feels demasculinized at the thought of being a virgin. Vincent sparks the goal of getting laid before the summer in order to assert his masculinity so that he can feel like a man. Again, at the beginning of the novel, he associates Chineseness to femininity when he exclaims, “Chinese girls are ugly. I like blondes.” (4).
ENGL139T
Professor Yamamoto
Waylaid
Ed Lin’s Waylaid is narrated by a twelve year old Chinese American boy who is on the brink of adolescence. The protagonist struggles to grow up as he helps his parents run a sleazy motel on the New Jersey Coast while catering to a variety of different men throughout the season such as old men in the winter to the Bennys in the summer. He struggles to grow up in the overly sexual environment as he loses his grip on concepts of friendship, family and most importantly his childhood. Throughout the entire novel, the narrator is on a quest to lose his virginity in order to assert his manhood. He begins to associate masculinity to Americanness and tries to prove his manhood as he struggles to create …show more content…
At the young age of twelve, he asserts, “I was about 12 years old when I knew that I had to get laid soon. No more of this jerking off. That was for fags.” (1). The narrator is seemingly burdened by his virginity and is motivated by the desire to lose it as quickly as possible. Even at a young age, he associates getting laid to being masculine. He associates virgins to “fags” who are usually known to be non-masculine as he displays homophobia. Losing one’s virginity is a metaphor of fitting in and being accepted while growing up and integrating into adulthood as the narrator’s sense of self-worth is crippled because he is still a virgin. Vincent, one of the Bennys who frequent the motel, is the narrator’s model as he is hyper sexual and has plenty of experience with women. Vincent is everything that the narrator wishes to be for sexual activity is closely linked to masculinity and he exudes masculinity. The narrator contrasts himself, a Chinese immigrant, to Vincent, an American, as he compares Vincent’s “pair of tight black trunks and aquarium blue flip flops” to his own “imitation leather slippers from Taiwan [that] left threads on the top of [his] feet” (2). No matter how hard the narrator tries, he seems to be different from the Bennys and cannot associate himself to their culture. Vincent continues to push the narrator as he begins to feel inferior to him as he explains, “I feel like such a loser when Vincent talked about girls. Vincent always talked about his fucking adventures” (4). The narrator fantasizes about sex escapades and feels demasculinized at the thought of being a virgin. Vincent sparks the goal of getting laid before the summer in order to assert his masculinity so that he can feel like a man. Again, at the beginning of the novel, he associates Chineseness to femininity when he exclaims, “Chinese girls are ugly. I like blondes.” (4).