Until They Bring The Streetcars Back

“We sat in our God-assigned chairs at the dark mahogany dinner table.”

Cal uses narrative humor as he sets up a typical family dinner. The nightly event is predictable, so much so that he likens it to a divine requirement. However, Cal’s parents—not God—created the staid formula, suggesting that the rules and beliefs in Cal’s household are rigid.

“[M]y dad, seeing me in the truck, started clanging the bell like crazy and I couldn’t help but notice how happy and proud he looked.”

West uses imagery to highlight Horace’s connection to the streetcars. When Cal sees him in the truck, Horace is “happy and proud.” The streetcars give Horace’s life purpose, and, though they’re not people, Horace arguably reserves most of his compassion for the streetcars.

“I felt sorry for D. B., I mean it was funny and I couldn’t help but laugh, but it was kind of sad, too, and I always got mixed up on stuff like that, like how I was supposed to feel.”

Cal demonstrates Showing Compassion for Others in this interaction with the bumbling teacher, foreshadowing his feelings for other people who receive unjust treatment. At the same time, Cal notes that showing compassion isn’t easy as it’s difficult to figure out how “to feel.”

“Love wasn’t having a warm feeling but it was a decision you make, and Love is not something we wait to have happen to us, but something we do.”

Pastor Ostrum’s sermon suggests that the feeling isn’t passive but instead a consistent action. This belief ties into the theme of Showing Compassion for Others. Cal must actively choose to show love to Gretchen and others in the story.

“We’ve called the police! The Police are on their way, we’ve called the police!”

Peggy’s declaration helps her confront the possible danger and trauma in the alley. The repetition of “police” reinforces their link to safety, yet West’s story also shows how police and adults can’t always keep people from harm.

“Maybe he was too scared to run away, like he thought McCluskey was like God or something and could find him wherever he hid.”

The motif of animals and nature helps Cal grasp the human world. The dog’s action mirrors Gretchen’s behavior. She can’t run away from her dad, and she fears that, whatever she does, he’ll escape and harm her more.

“I think it’s all right that you come and see her. Her father is too strict with that girl. I’ll never squeal on her.”

Mr. Buehler, the baker, complicates the claim that adults can’t confront the dangerous and traumatic world. Buehler aligns himself with Cal and Gretchen, and he intuits that something isn’t right with Otto.

“‘I’m going to go crazy.’ ‘No you’re not.’ ‘Yes I am. I’m going to end up like Helga.’”

Gretchen continually worries that she’ll go “crazy.” Her world is dangerous, but with Cal’s compassion, she stays resilient and holds onto the hope that she can one day escape her father and recover from her traumatic experiences.

“I turned for my room like a deserter, leaving him sitting alone in the dark.”

Cal has compassion for his dad, but he can’t show it. Sometimes, compassion is about words, but Cal can’t muster the courage to tell his dad he loves him. Cal’s father raised Cal without a lot of outward displays of affection, and this is reflected in Cal’s struggles as a teenager. He finds it very difficult to express his feelings to Lola, and he initially wants to run from Gretchen’s problems instead of helping her.

“Somehow I thought that having polio would be easier than being hopelessly in love with Lola Muldoon.”

Cal uses humor to highlight his tumultuous feelings for Lola. With “somehow,” West, and the character of Cal, acknowledge that this comparison is extreme, but so is what Lola does to him.

“I saw a lady who looked just like me and I went up to her and told her I was adopted […] Why didn’t my real mother or father keep me?”

Sandy confronts the trauma of adoption by going up to people who look like her and seeing if they’re her birth parents. Her question suggests that adoption is about a lack of compassion.

“The pastor sounded like he’d support the lunatic for mayor, for crying out loud.”

Cal uses humor to counter his disappointment with the pastor. Pastor Ostrum doesn’t identify Otto as a predator and he talks about him as if he’d vote him into a powerful position. The absurd scenario reinforces Cal’s bewilderment.

“Now, in the good times, they’re too fat and sassy to ride a streetcar.”

Horace concedes that many variables lead to the demise of streetcars—not just corporate machinations. His diction—“fat and sassy”—shows his contempt for people who’d rather drive cars than use the streetcar.

“I was running for my life and if I didn’t run fast enough, my blood would be smeared all over Goodrich or Amherst.”

Otto wants to kill Cal, and no one is around to help him. The stark scene advances the theme of Confronting Mature Issues in Adolescence. Cal has to face Otto without assistance from police or adults. This moment also helps to further characterize Otto, who is seldom described outside of Gretchen’s stories.

“In church I prayed like crazy and I slept most of the afternoon, but by evening I was going bananas.”

The pressure on Cal to help Gretchen tests his resilience and makes him feel like he’s coming undone or “going bananas.” He tries to talk to his dad, but his dad resists becoming involved in the details of Gretchen’s situation. Cal remains on his own.

“[T]he little cottontail I’d saved last fall had just saved me—the bunny and my wonderful sister.”

The motif of animals and nature supports the theme of Showing Compassion for Others. By caring for the bunny, Peggy incidentally saves her brother’s life. The bunny, an injured prey animal, reflects Cal’s vulnerable position at this moment.

“Spit on it, I told myself. Spit on it!”

Cal’s family continually leans on this phrase, and in jail, Cal recalls it. The idiom pushes Cal to boldly confront his unfortunate circumstances and not yield to despair, speaking to The Importance of Resilience.

“[S]he was sure that I’d learn some great lesson, like the judge said, and never again disgrace them like that.”

In the workhouse, Cal maintains his sense of humor. He dismisses the trope that adversity comes with a “great lesson.” Cal doesn’t need to learn a “lesson,” nor did he “disgrace” his parents. As people will soon discover, he acted like a hero.

“It was kind of like taking carrots for the cottontail.”

Cal invokes the motif of animals and nature when he compares stealing liquor to bringing carrots to the rabbit. Peggy is trying to help the animal, and Cal wants to help Gretchen, even if these outcomes require doing something wrong in the process.

“It scared me when I saw how fast everything I loved could be lost.”

After Cal frames Otto, he meditates on the dangerous position he has placed himself in. Showing Compassion for Others, specifically Gretchen, has endangered his own life and given him additional responsibilities to uphold. He is willing to commit lesser illegal actions to help Gretchen escape her monumental enemy.

“I saved the Nut Goodie in my locker and every day it reminded me and gave me hope.”

The Nut Goodie symbolizes hope. With Cal in the workhouse, Gretchen considers death by suicide, but when Sandy gives her the Nut Goodie, she realizes Cal is still there for her and musters the resilience to carry on.

“I killed him. He was my baby, my little boy. And my father made me do it.”

Gretchen admits the truth to Cal, and the repetition of first-person pronouns indicates that she’s ready to confront the trauma her dad caused her. She wants to honestly face her suffering and not repress it or project it onto Helga.

“Then Gretchen showed up in a light pink formal and I thought my glasses were lying to me. Jeez, no one in the universe would believe that was Gretch the Wretch.”

Cal, however unintentionally, gives Gretchen a makeover. In her prom dress, she goes from an outcast to a conventionally attractive girl. In this moment, she has the agency to control her own appearance and take charge of her own life, something she was forbidden from doing under Otto’s imprisonment.