Night at the Fiestas

The trailer park in “Mojave Rats” symbolizes Monica’s complex feelings about her class position and her desire to escape her underprivileged childhood. Many of the characters in this collection struggle with The Effects of Class on the Coming-of-Age Journey, and Monica also believes that she can elevate her social standing through gaining education or marrying an educated person. In both her first and second marriages, Monica chooses her partners based on their wealth and erudition, and she is chagrined when her current husband Elliot, a geologist and PhD candidate, brings her to a desolate and decrepit trailer park in the Mojave desert rather than to a stately university campus. She does her best to set herself apart from her neighbors, and although she has come from a humble background and has more in common with them than she would like to admit, she engages in acts of casual snobbery that alienate her from the other residents of the park.. Monica herself associates middle-class status with education, and she strives to let her neighbors know that she is a person with scholarly, high-culture interests. The trailer park thus represents concrete evidence of her failure to achieve her social goals, and her resentment of the people around her reflects her hidden resentment of herself.

Although this story is initially presented as a meditation on the nature of faith, a subtler message of the narrative involves Amadeo’s complex relationship with religion and his misunderstanding of the concept of redemption. Amadeo, who is not a devout, responsible, or hard-working man, resents the criticism that he receives in his community. He believes that his upcoming role as Jesus in the town’s Easter procession is an opportunity to be seen in a more positive light, but he mistakenly believes that merely performing a dramatic and realistic Christ will win him accolades. Ultimately, Amadeo realizes that the road to redemption can only be found by reconciling with his daughter and committing himself to his family. The nails thus emphasize The Contrast between Genuine Morality and Performative Religiosity, for their inclusion in the story helps the author to show that religion on its own cannot “save” someone. Instead, the narrative suggests that people must take an active role in their own salvation and commit to a life of good works rather than performing a pale imitation of faith. Amadeo makes this discovery for himself while carrying his cross, but he does so only after looking into his daughter’s eyes and realizing that she is his true responsibility, not the role of Jesus that he is momentarily playing in front of the town.