Reaction

After reading many of these stories i've been lead to believe that humor me is more of the idea that one humor the writer as he articulates his feelings on society, more than anything having to do with comedy. I felt that some of the stories had a comic edge to them but what I felt linked all the stories together was varying social commentaries. Take for example the first and second stories, Alexie's assimilation and Nelson's Run which both dealt, as did many of the stories, with race issues and issues of loyalty.

For me personally the most fascinating story was Nelson's run. The idea of the young boy being so un emotionally involved with his surroundings and his lack of loyality to his family made me wonder how he could have gotten to that point. The real kicker for came at the end when his lover from Manilla stabs his father and pleads with him to help her find a lawyer and he wonders to himself about what his date will be like. It was so cold. I had a hard time relating to a reaction like that and because of that, found it all the more interesting.

The second familial story that I found interesting as well as disturbing was the story about the brother and the jalapeños, called the Jalapeno Contest by Ray Gonzalez. I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea that these guys were so desperate to compete against eachother that they would make themselves almost sick to win and watch eachother. I couldn't help but wonder as I read it what would have driven them to treat each other like this. What was their motivation, aside from winning? It killed me.