Modern Language Association (MLA) Style

Written Commentary, “Going to the Moon”

Joe Cooldude

English 12

Mr. Nauss Cooldude 2

15 September 2009 Written Commentary, “Going to the Moon”

In paragraph thirteen of the short story, “Going to the Moon” by Nino Ricci, the narrator focuses on his experience with the Detroit riots. The narrator talks about the violence shown through the media and how his town of Windsor remained relatively unaffected. This paragraph is a conclusion to the short story, and so the topic of the

Detroit riots is important to the entire plot. When the main character looks across the river to the United States, and finds that contrary to his preconception, the same hardships he experienced in Canada would be the same or worse in Detroit.

Throughout the entire short story many hints are given to the main character, that life in the United States is no more accepting than in Canada. This final paragraph is the proof which is most obvious to the main character and which finally helps him come to the conclusion that his struggle to find acceptance, and escape poverty and ethnic discrimination is a global reality.

The entire story slowly builds toward this final sober realisation for the young boy that life is not fair, and that acceptance is not geographically discriminatory. This realization comes to culmination in a rather sad series of parallel events. Repeatedly the boy is subjected to his own naive perception of the world, which eventually only gives way to a reality of failure. The author makes an allusion to Dorothy’s falling asleep on the way to the Emerald City in Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. This is a clever allusion because at this last paragraph you can see how it extends farther past the effective description it provides of the frustration which comes from being stuck. If falling asleep on the yellow brick road was an allusion to being stuck in Windsor, than an effective Cooldude 3 allusion for this last paragraph, might be when Dorothy arrives at the emerald city and realizes the wizard is nothing more than a man. In The Wizard of Oz also, we find that

Dorothy’s trip has made her feel much better about her own home of Kansas. In this way the last line of the short story “Going to the Moon”, is also a sort of allusion when the author writes “...finally we rose up together and began to make our way home.” Just as in

The Wizard of Oz, the main character seems to have finally been able to identify with a place to call home.

In the last paragraph, the narrator uses many literary features to describe the scene of the Detroit skyline. In context, the diction seems to suggest that to the narrator, what was being witnessed was the apocalypse of a dream world. As the smoke coming from the riots rose over the city, it was revealed that the tall buildings were only shallow illusions of a better life. When describing the scene, the author uses diction like

“shadowy figures”, “the streets, cloaked in shadows”, “great clouds of dark smoke”, and

“unearthly blue” (sky). The authors choice of words at this point, suggest that at this point, the characters view of the United States had changed, and he now saw Canada as less a temporary situation, and more a home.

Within this last paragraph, is an understanding of the struggle familiar to the families of immigrants to Canada. Although the narrator’s point of view is somewhat limited omniscient, we can still infer the way being of Italian decent, and therefore discriminated against, affected the characters family. Cousin Benny for example, went to war in Vietnam because he felt fighting for Canada or the United States, would make him more legitimately Canadian. To be forced to leave your own country due to war, and by Cooldude 4 forces beyond yourself begin a new and challenging life, is a universal story of inspiringly misunderstood humility.