'Finding “Love In L.A.” Essay\r'

'Stuck in dealing on the Holly d e truly(prenominal)yd free musical mode angiotensin converting enzyme morning, a rakish guy named Jake gets into an chance amidst nursing a fantastic dream ab start owning a better motorcar than his beat up ’58 Buick. after surveying the persecute on his car and the absence of it, Jake sees an aspect once he meets the victim of his traffic flight of attend. He unleashes his works and proceeds to woo his victim, a Venezuelan immigrant named Marianna, by inquire her name and number, and by trying to change over her not to let the authorities slam what happened. However, all his attempts fail as Marianna keeps work shift the focus back to the problem at hand.\r\nWhen finally confronted with the tariff for the damages, Jake decides to lie his way out by giving turned information regarding his identity and car insurance. scorn these, he pursued Marianna by claiming to be twain a musician and an actor. After the so-cal guide solution to the problem, Marianna seems to warm up to Jake and finally relents in giving her number. As they part ways, Jake notices that Marianna jots down his license coats, qualification sure that he would be traced. However, Jake has the sustain laugh as it is revealed that his license exfoliations were save stolen from an old junk.\r\nThe drool ends with the sly flutter off gloating on his natural spring and move back into an new(prenominal)wise fantasy. Love in L. A. is a story about love, or the lack of it. Readers of the story argon led to believe that it is a story of both star-crossed lovers, a punch-drunk guy and a stable, proper girl, meeting in the close unlikely of places such as a traffic accident on Hollywood boulevard. However, the story reveals that the romantic notion of decision love in unlikely places is serious a fantasy, a flight of fancy not unlike the one(a) Jake was having when he smacked into Marianna’s car.\r\nL. A. is perfect as a setting for this story as it is a chorus of both the billet domain of a function and cultural diversity. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, it is one of the largest and near diverse cities in the fall in Sates with a population of almost 10 million multicultural residents ( severalise and County Quick facts). parenthesis from its impressive statistics, it is similarly home to the most famous entertainment town in the world, Hollywood. It is the perfect place for a freewheeling character to have a chance ensure with the prim and proper business type.\r\nAnd where else and to stage it in a freeway where all walks of life are made equal by detriment the same fate, beingness stalled in a traffic jam. Thus, L. A. toilet be considered a perfect setting for star-crossed â€Å"lovers” meeting in a city’s social crucible, the freeway. The interaction between the characters when they meet mirrors courtship. The boy finally having a chance to bawl out to the pretty girl , tries to put his best instauration forward while the girl seems run-resistant to the infatuation.\r\nThis encounter reveals the hidden agendas, the motives behind the charms and the delusion of first impressions. Then, the reader is once again taken for a ride as it seems that the prim and proper girl melts to the charm of the easy-go-lucky guy and relents in giving him a sliver of personal information. moreover this commit is dashed once again in the fit part of the story as the masks of the two characters are stripped international to reveal their slyness and utilization: one is making sure the some other allow for not escape while the other gloats in his final sham.\r\nThis final encounter supports the fact that the love in this story is nothing more(prenominal) than a means, to be manipulated by both characters to achieve their ends. When Jake Met Marianna The insertion of Jake paints a picture of a chargefree easy-go-lucky guy who lives detached from the set rul es of life. He is presented as a man whose philosophy hinges on self-freedom sort of than stability. He despises being chained to routine, as shown by his confidence towards ‘the steadily employed’ and his reference to Marianna’s hurrying to the office as ‘boring’.\r\nHe can be considered a free spirit, not in a positive sense, but preferably more as a bum who would instead live in fantasy than search the responsibilities of naive realism. condescension the age of his car, 52 age old, Jake comes off as middle-aged, around 25-30 years of age, lanky and with a scruffy chin, corrosion a shirt with a vibrate and roll theme, faded jeans and battered chuck Taylors. He would have been cool if he had focused on restoring his ’58 Buick kind of than daydreaming about having a unused car. Instead, his daydreaming almost led to the harm of his present car.\r\nThe traffic accident strengthens the word-painting of Jake, magnifying his tend ency to live in his dreams rather than face reality. He went for keen and charms rather than owning up fors his mistake, in the hopes of both escaping the responsibility of paying for the damage and capturing the girl. The traffic accident was also the means for the reader to be introduced to Marianna, the victim of Jake’s daydream. She is first introduced as affable, even smiling at Jake in their first verbal exchange.\r\nHowever, the conflict also reveals her true nature as she deflects all of Jake’s advances to ensure that justice is served. Despite her short exposure and introduction in the story, the reader can glean so overmuch history from the way she reacted to the problem. From the teeny pieces of information provided in the story, one can infer that Marianna’s immigrant family have had success in their adopted homeland, evidenced by the fact that her father was able to entertain her a car. She is an independent woman, asserting her proper(a) even in the barrage of Jake’s swagger and charm.\r\nBut, she can also be very manipulative. Realizing that Jake was untrustworthy, she pretended to be touched by her charms so as to escape his advances. Then, when they were about to separate, she jotted down the Buick’s plate number just in facial expression the information received was false. Her efforts failed however as it is revealed that even the plate number was false. The last paragraphs defined both characters. They were an anti-thesis of each other right down to their cars. Jake drove a beat down yet very durable 1958 Buick while Marianna drove a brand new, trade but quite flimsy car.\r\nThe beat down Buick is an adjunct of the characterization of Jake in the sense that it had the possible to be a very exquisite car if only taken care of. Its garble plate number represented the swagger of Jake, open to the public but fraudulent. Marianna’s car on the other hand also mirrored her personality. It was n ew, imported and up to date with the advancements of the modern age. But since it was imported, much like the immigrant Marianna, it was flimsy and not up for the abuse of American freeways.\r\n thus far the effect of the accident on both owners and cars were similar. Surely, Marianna will be traumatized once she finds out that all the information she got, down to the plate number, were fake and useless, much like her car which was dented and damaged. As for the Buick and Jake, life goes on, the effectiveness of the car continues to be unrealized much like its owner’s reality warped by his fantasies. In closing, the prenomen of the story misleads the reader into thinking that it is thusly a romantic story.\r\nThus, it perfectly encapsulates the profound theme of misleading. This theme propels the story: from the lies and swagger of Jake to his penchant for living in daydreams to the manipulation of Marianna with Jake’s infatuation of her down to the fake license pl ates of the Buick. Even readers will shake their heads, falling victims to the same fate as Marianna and her flimsy car. Works Cited U. S. Census Bureau. â€Å"State and County Quick facts”. last revised 21 April 2010. Web. 13 July 2010. <http://quickfacts. census. gov/qfd/states/06/06037. html>\r\n'