Always Running Blog #1

In Always Running, Luis J. Rodriguez uses imagery to describe the setting around himself. To begin with, he writes, " A 1950s bondo-speckled Dodge surged through a driving rain, veering around the potholes and upturned tracks of the abandoned Red Line trains on Alameda,". Luis J. Rodriguez uses phrases like "1950s bondo-speckled Dodge" to help the reader picture what the car looked like. The "1950s" shows the car is of used quality and "bondo-speckled" shows how the car may have rusted with the paint chipped off. Also, he described the type of weather that was occurring during his flashback of the move. He uses, "driving rain" to show how the rain was forceful, the type of rain that drops heavily upon the roof of the car. Toward the middle of this chapter, Rodriguez describes the atmosphere of the neighborhood around him. He writes, "On 105th Street the smells were of fried lard, of beans and car fumes, of factory smoke and home-made brew out of backyard stills. They were chicken smells and goat smells in grassless yards filled with engine parts and wire and wood planks, cracked and sprinkled with rusty nails,". Rodriguez fulfills the senses of smell and sight with the use of imagery. He uses imagery to accentuate the smell surrounding himself of, "fried lard" ,"beans", "car fumes", and "factory smells" to show how he lives in an area with a Latino culture influence. The "car fumes" can represent the smog that comes from the cars, with has a strong odor. Also, he mentions "factory smells", to explain how there may be a factory close by where they live which produces a lot of pollution. To accentuate the sight of his surroundings, he uses "grassless yards", to show how his streets yard aren't full of grass. To maintain a nice lawn, you need to water and mow it, and we all know that if you use high amount of water, your water utility bill will be high. The reader can infer that since the story takes place in a neighborhood of the working class, they may not water the grass to avoid a high water bill. Next, in those yards there is "engine parts" and "wire and wood planks" to show how these yards are filled with junk. I can connect to this scene because in my street, there's some sidewalks with wooden planks left by someone. Luis J. Rodriguez uses this setting to compare his neighborhood to the lavish neighborhood his mom works for. The reader can see the obvious difference between each setting. It is like two different worlds, those who are rich to the working class.