Valencia and Tales of the City Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Valencia and Tales of the City - Essay Example Valencia and Tales of the City Lassister and say that I won’t be in on Monday† (Goupil and Josh 122), she tells her mother, indicating the impulsive nature of her decision. In Valencia, Michelle Tea is also impulsive, and self indulgent, especially with her job choices and quits many of her jobs then hops onto other jobs. She moves in confusion from one job to another. She falls in love with a succession of girls, going onto the next one as soon as she left the earlier girlfriend. At one point, she even turns to prostitution just for the fun of it. She attends gay marches and parties with regular abandon, usually at the slightest encouragement. Michelle also cannot keep a job and quits jobs at a moment’s notice. Both Mary-Ann Singleton and Michelle Tea have eccentric friends. Mary Ann has an eccentric collection of friends. Mona who describes herself as a fag hag helps her get a job. Mona’s best pal is a gay man called Mouse, who also becomes her friend and is in constant search for love in gay bars. Another of her acquaintances is her landlady Mrs. Madrigal whose past is as mysterious as her eccentric behavior and marijuana growing obsession. Her boss is Edgar Halcyon, whose miserable daughter is married to an adulterous man, Beauchamp. Beauchamp has an affair with Mrs. Madrigal. Norman, a vitamin hawking nerd, takes care of his pal’s young daughter and Mary befriends him, as he seems more left field than she is. Michelle Tea has similar eccentric friends. Petra is a revelation to Tea’s thrilling side as she is a knife brandishing bossy girl, who is a lesbian. Willa is depressive and refuses to strip her clothes of even when they are caught in the moment’s passion. Iris, on the other hand, is described is a scrumptious girl from Georgia who Michelle falls head over heels for before realizing that she is not what she had first deciphered of her. Michelle Tea and Mary-Ann Singleton both have dramatic relationships with girlfriends and family. Te a was in love with Iris, and all was going well for them. When she meets Willa, she tries to sleep with her despite the fact that she loves Iris and that she knew Willa deeply loved Ashley. When Laurel came in to the picture with claiming that she loved Iris, this made the main character confused with the situation. The main character had to get drunk to muster the necessary courage to tell Iris that they had to break up since Laurel was a friend to the main character; the main character is sacrificing her love for Iris for her friendship with Laurel. However, this does not go according to plan since the main character is moved by the love that Iris has for her, she cried her heart out to the main character telling her that she liked her and wanted to continue going out with her. â€Å"Laurel is in love with you. She’s my friend. What? Iris looked seriously confused. She had just started smoking again and pulled an American spirit from a mangled blue pack. But I don’t want not to go out with you, she said. I like you so much. Maybe she was crying now too, I like you more than anything.† When Laurel heard of this, she gave the main character a big shrug that signified her disgust at her. Laurel had a stable and responsible job working for a software company that was located in Berkeley while the main character was a poet (Goupil and Josh 124). Mary Ann Singleton’s relationships are no less dramatic. However, unlike Michele, she does not engage in errant sexual relationships with her acquaintances. She instead tries to get to know them better and