An orange train to ballston analysis

The author wrote about the family of four who took several trains to and from Ballston. Marvella Velle is a single mother with three young children, Avis, Marvin, and Marcus. One day, she encounters a good-looking man with dreadlocks on the train as her kids became intrigued with his hairstyle. Theme The theme of the story is alienation and it is about getting lost in the city for strange romantic relationships. She had been alienated by the father of her kids and Marvella dragged her kids along to look for a man she did not know. His mum could not even understand how the flush lights could know the approach of the train. Marvin asked, ‘‘How do the lights know when the train is coming?’’ ‘‘I don’t know,’’ said his mum.

But she could manage to challenge the question of her boy and explained using the movements of the train. Marvin was perplexed by his Mom when she responded that she didn’t know how the flush lights indicate the approach of the train. But his Mom did not hesitate to explain a little she knew about it, that the moving train could have been hitting an object along the lines and that tells the lights ahead to start blinking. The train sent ahead a roar indicating that it was almost to the platform. Marvella became cautious. She looked around to make sure that all her children are close and secure. When Mavella turned away from the coming train, she saw that Marcus had been talking with the man on dreadlocks. This was the man she was dragging her kids to get to see him yet he was not familiar with him.

He took advantage of looking at him directly and planned to utilize the situation. The author used diction when Marvella thought of telling Marcus to turn around and stop staring at the man. Her intelligibility to her kids could not be expressed and she allowed the kids to continue staring at the man. Her attraction to the man also got the attention of her kids. Avis also was staring at the man as what his brother Marcus was doing. The man laughed at the children who were busy criticising his hair. Surprisingly, Marvella had been expecting the man to have a West Indian accent. The locks of his hair were at least a foot longer and there were at least twenty locks with the roundness of a nickel. Each lock was about an inch high and there were bands of dark colour.

The smell of the man was like incense of street vendors. They walked up the streets despite the rains up to where Marvella’s mother lived. In a few minutes, Marvella was back down the 12th street to C & P Telephone Company where she served as a service representative. It was early in the morning and saw her day as a block. The following day, Marcus saw the man with the same hair and was shocked. The man said to Marvella that she had wonderful kids. Velle screams at him that, ‘‘I am the boss around here and you seem to be forgetting that,’’ and then tells Marcus to shut up. The single mother feels loneliness and alienated. The romantic tension of the story comes to a crashing halt as the story ends.