Lack of Appreciation

As I read the three works, “The Path to the Milky Way Leads through Los Angeles” by Joy Harjo, “A Bedtime Story” by Mitsuye Yamada, and “A Father” by Bharati Mukherjee, it crossed my mind that these three pieces of literature tell tales of under appreciation and all put to use heritage. A Bedtime Story tells of a Japanese legend where the narrator doesn’t understand its importance. Joy Harjo’s poem uses Native American language and appreciation of nature and god to portray a unique picture of Los Angeles. A Father tells a story about a father who gets very upset at his daughter for a lack of appreciation of her opportunities.

In A Father, the Bhowmick’s have moved from India to America. The father was very reluctant at first but the mother’s constant persistence made him give in. Once the family arrived, the mother was very quick to leave the culture of India behind, while the father clung very heavily to it. Their daughter, who is in her mid-twenties, has many opportunities that the parents did not have, such as the ability to chose who she wants to marry; the parents’ are part of an arranged marriage. The mother and father in this story seem to be quite distant, probably due to their arranged marriage. When the father finds out that the daughter has been artificially inseminated and is now pregnant without having a husband or even so much as a boyfriend, he lost control of his emotions and got very upset; so upset that he hit her in the stomach in an attempt to kill the baby.

A Bedtime Story is a poem without much punctuation, which adds to its purpose as a free-flowing story. The story is of a papa telling his child of an ancient Japanese legend. The legend tells of a woman sleeping outside on a hill outside of the town in which she had just gone door to door looking for some shelter. While on the hill and about to sleep, the woman sees a once in a lifetime natural light show, and the story ends quite abruptly with her thanking the people of the city, for if she had not been turned down by all she would have never seen this sight. After the father tells the narrator the story, the narrator responds with “That’s the end?” (line 45). The narrator doesn’t appreciate the story, which coincidentally tells of a woman’s gained appreciation for nature. The irony lies in the narrator not appreciating the story about appreciation.

The Path to the Milky Way Leads through Los Angeles looks at the city of Los Angeles differently than most would ever look at it. The author, who is of Native American descent, takes a very spiritual look at an often nonspiritual city. The narrator describes the city as a place of constantly beautiful summer and suggests that the city has a “shimmer of gods.” The narrator in this poem is a newcomer to the city, and is struggling to fit in. Despite this, the narrator has hope and though he does not “see anything, not just yet” he is collecting “the shine of anything beautiful” (lines 26-28). The narrator, being a newcomer and from a different background, sees what the people of Los Angeles often ignore; its beauty.

In all of these works, there are people who do not appreciate either the chances they were given or the guidance and privileges they have received. Also, none of these ignorant characters realize that they are ignorant or unappreciative on their own; there are no great epiphanies present. In all of these works, one’s background plays a role, whether it be acting as an example of what present freedoms you have, a different take on a common thing, or a way to tell a moral filled story.