Contradiction and Water

June 5, 2013 by dtohyama 1 Comment

 

Contradiction and Water

Through the book, The Gangster We Are All Looking for, readers see many contradictions such as comfort, peace, rage, or sadness related to water. The way the book describes hands also tells reader the contradiction. When Ba and Ma fight in their apartment, Ma starts to cry and tells Ba not to touch her with his gangster hands. (92) Shortly after this scene, Ma gets punched by his hands. This scene tells readers not only their fighting but also his short temper. It implies Ba’s emotional roller coaster related to water, which is always moving up and down. The scene also shows how body could make rage and sadness. On the other hand, many scenes show readers comfort or peace caused by body. “Without any hair and looking like a man, my mother is still my mother. Her hands always bring me up, her peasant hands with the flat and wide nails. I will know her by her hands.”(95) This scene implies how her mother’s hands make her happy and comfortable. Through the book, readers do not often see her positive feelings about her mother.  While her mother’s emotion is also changing radically, her emotion is changing.  In terms of her trauma, peace, and Ba’s emotion, readers see how Ba’s emotional roller coaster affects her trauma and comfort. One night when she sees her father sad and broken, he realizes that she sees himself at that time. Then he resorts to force on her. (117) Then this scene, she tries to forget peaceful memories as well as sad memories. Those scenes show readers how his hands affect her memories and emotions. Ironically, when Ba and she go to see counselors, he apologizes with his hands, which make his rage and her sadness. Hands make people happy, peaceful, sad, or angry as well as water.