What passage in "Catch the Moon" by Judith Ortiz Cofer explains the title?
In the story, the judge has ruled that, as part of his probation, Luis Cintron must provide his father free labor for six months. His job at his father's salvage yard is to wash and polish all the hubcaps (wheel covers) on site. Luis doesn't enjoy his job at all, and he soon becomes moody and restless.
Part of the reason for Luis' agitation is that he misses his deceased mother. However his father, Jorge, is too emotionally invested in the past to help Luis move past his debilitating grief. The story takes an interesting turn when a beautiful young lady named Naomi Ramirez turns up. She asks the two men to help her find a replacement for one of the wheel covers (or hub caps) on her Volkswagen Bug.
In the story, the wheel cover is a metaphor for the moon. In addition to the passage provided by my...
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colleague, here is another passage that explains the story's title:
He walked to the window, and she held up the sketch pad on which she had drawn him, not crying like a baby, but sitting on top of a mountain of silver disks, holding one up over his head.
In the passage above, the image is of Luis metaphorically catching the moon (finding the wheel cover). Like Luis' mother, Naomi has faith in Luis. After she shows Luis her drawing, he becomes inspired to look for the wheel cover. Prior to this, Luis had been unsuccessful in his search; the wheel had somehow proven to be as elusive as a full moon.
Because of Naomi's faith in him, Luis finds the wheel cover. He goes back to her house and hangs it on a branch outside her window. The text tells us that the wheel cover is "the first good thing he had given anyone in a long time."
Prior to her death, Luis' mother had been a strength to her son. She had always been the one who told him how much she loved him and how proud she was of him. After her death, however, Luis had acted out his grief in inappropriate ways. The text tells us that Luis started getting into trouble when he began high school.
On the night that Luis goes back to Naomi's house with the wheel cover, there is no moon in the night sky. Luis' success represents the overcoming of an emotional barrier. With Naomi's quiet faith in him (so similar to his mother's), Luis is able to put his mind to the task and to find what he's looking for. There is no need for a literal moon, as Luis has managed to retrieve a metaphorically elusive "moon": in finding the wheel cover, he has managed to retrieve his confidence and hope in life again, things he believed had been lost to him since his mother's untimely death.
What is the theme of Judith Ortiz Cofer's "Catch the Moon"?
One of the themes in the short story "Catch the Moon" is that of loss and its effect on people. Jorge Cintron loses his wife to cancer, after which he spends his free time “polishing utensils that only he uses” and studying for correspondence courses in “just about everything.” According to Luis, his father does all this in order to keep himself busy following his wife’s death. In fact, even though Mr. Cintron is as good a cook as his late wife, he has lost interest in cooking. Luis is also devastated by his mother’s death. He remembers his anger at losing her and how later this had made him “punch a hole in his bedroom wall.” He had even refused to talk to the people who came to the funeral. It is stated that he lost his mother three years before the date of narration and joined high school two years before, upon which he became a troublemaker. This means that his delinquent behavior started after his mother’s death. Luis remembers his mother’s love for him and bursts into tears. He misses his mother.
Another theme is that of love and its ability to heal. Through Naomi, Luis remembers his mother’s love and decides to pick up the pieces of his life. He is motivated to work into the night, sorting the wheel covers in order to get a hubcap for Naomi’s car. While working, he begins to understand “why his father kept busy all the time.” When he finds the right hubcap, he polishes it, and even though it is late in the night, he goes to Naomi’s house to “give her the first good thing he had given anyone in a long time.”
A theme is a universal truth or underlying message. For this story, two examples of theme are the idea of a diamond in the rough and the transcendent power of love.
Let’s take the first theme first. Young Luis is a trouble-maker. He has been arrested for playing around and breaking into the house of a lady with a “million cats” on a dare. Luis seems like a bad seed. He is grumpy, lazy, and dejected. When a girl named Naomi shows up looking for a hubcap for an old car, it reminds Luis about his mother. The girl lives in a funeral home. Luis thinks about his mother.
She wasn’t perfect or anything. She had bad days when nothing he did could make her smile, especially after she got sick. But he never heard her say a negative thing about anyone. (p. 7)
We realize that Luis is not that bad. He formed the gang and got into trouble not because he is a bad seed, but to make up for a terrible loss. Many people grieve by becoming withdrawn. When Naomi shows up needing the hub cap, Luis works all night to find it.
For hours he sorted the wheel covers by make, size and condition, stopping only to call his father and tell him what he was doing. (p. 7)
Luis’s story also demonstrates the transcendent power of love. When Naomi arrives, Luis thinks of his mother and wants to prove to her that he is a good person.
He missed her. He missed her so much. Suddenly a flood of tears that had been building up for almost three years started pouring from his eyes. (p. 7)
Luis is sure to be changed from his experience. He was changed by his memory of his mother, and his love for her.