66 pages • 2 hours read
Armistead MaupinTales of the City
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1978A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
28 Barbary Lane
The apartment block owned by Mrs. Madrigal becomes a symbol for San Francisco as a whole. It is inhabited by a diverse cast of characters, whose lives interconnect and affect one another. Mary Ann finds the apartment by chance after viewing a series of inferior options. It is described as a “well-weathered, three-story structure made of brown shingles” and makes “Mary Ann think of an old bear with bits of foliage caught in its fur” (17). Though the building seems nondescript, she likes it instantly.
The building does not exist in isolation; rather, it is an extension of its owner, Mrs. Madrigal. As the owner and operator of the block of apartments, Mrs. Madrigal brings her own character to the building. Approval is a two-way street, and she must approve of them as much as they approve of the building. If she likes a person, then she is far more lenient than a typical landlord. At various times, both Mona and Michael are behind on the rent, but they are given a great deal of leeway by Mrs. Madrigal. This gives the building the sense that it is an incubation chamber, a place where she can gather those people she finds most interesting and—at times—live her life vicariously through them. Mrs. Madrigal is (quite literally) the gatekeeper to the building and, in a similar way to how the building operates as a symbol for San Francisco, she is the conductor or the guardian of this spirit. She nurtures and encourages people to make the most of San Francisco, using the building as a conduit to achieve this goal.
As an extension of this, the marijuana she grows in the garden is a natural extension of the building’s symbolic meaning; the marijuana is literally birthed from the earth of the allotment, harvested and cultivated by Mrs. Madrigal, and then rolled into a neat joint as a welcoming present for new tenants. The marijuana is not grown for profit or for anyone else; it is solely for the enjoyment of those who live in the building. Though illegal in some parts of the United States, marijuana is par for the course at Barbary Lane and seemingly just another facet of life. Much in the same way that many aspects of San Francisco’s culture would not be tolerated elsewhere, the drug culture at Barbary Lane symbolizes the more liberal attitudes available in the building and the city as a whole.
Finally, the physical layout of Barbary Lane helps to reflect characters. Brian and Mary Ann live opposite one another, two sides of a potential heterosexual relationship. Mona invites Michael into her home, a reflection of her fluid sexuality. Most obvious of all, however, is Norman. He is older, more reserved, a military veteran, and he has the darkest secret to hide. He is different in many ways, and his living conditions reflect this. Norman lives in the small apartment on the roof, almost as though he is a nagging thought in the minds of the residents. He represents their dark secrets and their traditional, conservative values. He is a part of Barbary Lane but also not a part (he does not receive the welcoming joint on his door). As a symbol, Norman’s apartment is the guilt, the fear, and the reactionary mindset which all of the residents (of both the building and San Francisco) know exist but which they do not want to acknowledge. Physically separate though ever present, Norman’s apartment on the roof is a symbol for the psychological trouble lurking in the minds of the characters.
Ties
Norman’s tie is a repeated motif throughout the novel. It is one of the first things that people notice about him. Mary Ann remarks that “Smokey the bear man with a clip-on tie” (168) is not particularly attractive, but she seems to like him anyway. Her focus on the tie is telling, as it adds into the overall pitiable state of Norman’s character. Despite being one of the oldest figures in the book, heralding from a different age, he is still unable to own and operate an actual tie. His choice in clothing is designed to appear respectable but, on closer inspection, is shown to be nothing but a fake. The clip-on tie, much like Norman’s entire life, is just a façade, a cheap lie which disguises his true nature.
Later, when Mary Ann has gotten to know Norman better, she decides that he needs help. She spends her lunch hour “picking out just the right tie” (213) for him; it is more care and attention than Norman has paid to his own appearance in (seemingly) decades. This tie is intended to be a real tie, something to replace the “gross, gravy-stained clip-on number” (213). Though she puts a great deal of thought into the purchase, Norman does not wear the tie when it matters most. Despite Mary Ann’s attempts to see the best in him and her attempts to dress him up as something more respectable, Norman always reverts to his true nature and his clip-on tie.
This reversion is Norman’s coup de grâce. When Mary Ann discovers the truth about Norman’s activities with Lexy, she is disgusted. She calls him and asks to meet, setting up a confrontation. When he arrives, Norman is drunk and defensive. He is once again wearing the cheap clip-on tie. As much as Mary Ann has tried to change him, she has been unsuccessful and, as he stumbles and slips off a cliff, she makes one last desperate attempt to save Norman. When she looks down, she is left holding his clip-on tie. If Norman had been wearing a real tie (like the one Mary Ann had purchased), he might have been saved. Instead, he was doomed by his own pathetic nature. The façade (symbolized by the clip-on tie) became Norman’s ultimate destruction; the secrets and the lies led to his death.
DeDe’s Baby
Though the novel ends while DeDe is still pregnant, her baby becomes an important symbol for the steady reclamation of her agency. As DeDe herself realizes at the end of the novel, “she had moved, without so much as a skipped heartbeat, from the benevolent autocracy of Edgar to the spineless tyranny of Beauchamp Day” (232). At no point in her life has she truly been in control. This is part of the reason why she (and her mother) enjoy hosting social gatherings: it is the creation of a small world over which they have complete agency. In the majority of her life, DeDe exists in relation to either Edgar or Beauchamp, rarely standing up as a person in her own right.
The baby is conceived in a pique of frustration regarding this very matter. DeDe is more than aware of Beauchamp’s infidelity but struggles to conceive of a way in which she can extract her revenge. Divorce would seemingly be scandalous in the society pages, while accusing him of adultery would only elicit more lies. Instead, she decides to have an affair of her own. This affair is an attempt to reassert her own identity as a sexual being rather than just existing as the “wife of Beauchamp Day.” She tries to contact an old flame but, when that fails, settles instead for the Chinese grocery delivery boy. The affair is a spur of the moment action and remains secret—however, it makes DeDe feel so good that she later calls the delivery boy again.
When she finds out that she is pregnant, DeDe is worried. She seeks out the help of a doctor but is betrayed by her friend Binky, and the news slips out. Carson Callas, the gossip columnist whose name is a blunt pun on the word callous, finds out. He blackmails DeDe, asking her if she is “‘going to have the abortion before or after’” (203) an upcoming event. Mortified, suddenly at the beck and call of yet another man, DeDe does not know what to do. She acquiesces to Callas’ demands and, after sleeping with him, convinces herself that she feels “almost noble” (211) and that she was trying to save her marriage. This desperation to convince herself of her own agency and her own nobility is fraught with error; DeDe knows that there is still a baby inside her and that she will have to get an abortion at one stage or another, lest the world find out what she has done. Her noble act is, ultimately, irrelevant.
Gradually, DeDe begins to realize that aborting the baby will not save her marriage. Beauchamp will continue to sleep with other people, and she will continue to exist entirely in his shadow. When Beauchamp explicitly states that he does not want to have a child, DeDe is presented with an opportunity to assert her own authority and agency. By refusing the abortion, she is wresting control of her own narrative. She is making a decision for herself, and the continued gestation of her baby is evidence that she is able to make her own decisions. Though the birth of the biracial baby might become a scandal, it is a scandal which DeDe now owns and embraces. The baby symbolizes her renewed control over her own destiny and her freedom to do as she pleases, even if it does result in the destruction of her standing in society.
