Love In L. A By Dagoberto Gilb Analysis

What drives people to act the way they do? Is it their ambitions? Is it their past? In the short story “Love in L.A.”, Dagoberto Gilb follows Jake, a seemingly ordinary man caught in the congested traffic of the Hollywood Freeway. However, Jake isn’t just some ordinary man caught in traffic, he is unemployed, insuranceless, and licenseless–and he is proud of it. Moments later, Jake gets into a car accident with a young woman, Mariana, and is expected to exchange his non-existent contact information. Forging an insurance company and phone number, Jake’s “performance” quickly deprives Mariana of any genuine information, leaving her behind as she writes down the numbers of a license plate that are not even his. However, although Jake may initially

Jake is unemployed, and homeless as Gilb makes evident when he says Jake, “made up a last name and address” (434). If Jake does not own a residence and job, what does he do everyday? In this case, Jake fantasizes about living a lavish life-style with: “Exotic colognes, plush, dark night-clubs, mai tais, and daiquiris, necklaced ladies in satin gowns, misty and sexy like in a tequila ad” (Gilb 432). His nomadic and solitary life-style coupled with his frequent fantasizing creates this illusion of the real-world that Jake is living in, and ultimately cuts him off from the outside world. This is what causes Jake’s entitlement behavior towards Mariana when they first meet, as he believes, from his skewed perspective, that women love to appeal to men. Being in the situation that he is in, Jake attempts to obtain Mariana’s favor by flirting with her as he asks, “You’re not married, are you? Not that it would matter much to me. I’m an open-minded kinda guy”, and “Mariana, you are beautiful” (433, 434). Since Jake has this misogynistic view of women he believes his actions will win Mariana’s favor and allow him to avoid responsibility for the

When Jake was stuck in traffic, a glimpse of his sense of entitlement over people who are employed can be seen when he, “stared bye-bye to the steadily employed” (Gilb, 432). One may ask what does pride have to do with entitlement? Entitlement behavior stems from believing one is entitled to something, and in the case of Jake, his pride causes him to look down on those who are employed, thus fueling his sense of entitlement over Mariana, who is employed. Furthermore, Jake’s inflated ego also causes him to exaggerate himself as the text says, “‘I'm a musician,’ he [Jake] exaggerated greatly” (Gilb, 433). With this fact, Jake's “superiority” over others and tendency to exaggerate results in his misplaced entitlement. However, his pride is not what it seems to be. Jake’s pride is a product of his superiority complex. The American Psychological Association’s definition of superiority complex is a person’s “exaggerated opinion of one’s abilities and accomplishments that derives from an overcompensation for feelings of inferiority” (American Psychological Association). The key word here is “exaggerated”, for the reason that Jake does tend to exaggerate, and it is not unlikely that Jake's entire facade is a result of his plummet into