Until They Bring the Streetcars Back

West, Stanley Gordon. Until They Bring the Streetcars Back. Bozeman, MT: Lexington-Marshall Pub., 1997. Print.

In Stanley Gordon West’s Until They Bring the Streetcars Back, Cal Gant, an eighteen year-old high school senior is thrust into a world of promises, cover-ups, love, friendship, family drama and a struggle to expose the horrible truths without exposing himself.  Set in 1949 and 1950 in St. Paul, MN Cal’s high school innocence is broken by a revelation from a school outcast: Gretchen Lutterman. 

Before Cal is thrown into the hurricane of Gretchen’s world, it’s important to note that he is a popular, upbeat, highly regarded person and valued athlete in his community.  He has very little to gain from getting involved with someone like Gretchen and everything to lose by trying to solve her problems.  Regardless, after she discloses she is being beaten by her father, Cal feels he has to do something to make it right. 

After some teasing by his friends that he is associating with someone like Gretchen, he continues about his successful high school career.  As of now, Cal’s main concern is unrequited love to Lola Muldoon, a girl he has had feelings for sometime now and who is currently seeing his best friend Tom Bradford.  Much like Gretchen’s cause, Cal has been in denial that this isn’t a problem that needs correcting—the status quo is uncomfortable but fine for now. 

Cal is an everyman in the school and life in general; he has a good head on his shoulders, is successful, cares for others and knows how to cause good-natured trouble.  As the story progresses, Tom and Lola “break up” to appease Tom’s mother only to actually break up.  Cal sees an opportunity and after some awkward attempts to express his true feelings, he and Lola are boyfriend and girlfriend. 

With all seeming well in the world, he is subsequently sucked in Gretchen’s world of horrible secrets.  While working his job delivering groceries he often encounters Gretchen at her job in a local bakery.  Between school and these work encounters, she reveals more about her life, family and past.  Cal is skeptical but learns her stories are true and her situation is dire. 

Although this is a situation anyone would take to the authorities, there is a sticking point to Gretchen’s disclosures: her father is extremely strict and may kill her if the truth about what he has done is revealed.  This puts Cal in a tough spot; he must expose the truth without really telling anyone.  It is a tightrope Cal must walk.  In addition to this burden, his father will soon be unemployed and the future of the family is uncertain.

After contacting several people that normally help those in need, Cal gets no solutions and comes to the conclusion that any solution to Gretchen’s problem will have to be on his terms.

After hearing a particularly horrifying tale from Gretchen that her sister had a child through her father, he takes the extremely bold step of breaking into the Lutterman house to get evidence.  He learns the baby’s body is in the freezer and eventually steals it, only to have Gretchen’s father give chase and snatch it back. 

After escaping unharmed but extremely frustarted and shaken up, Cal begins to hatch a plan to frame Gretchen’s father.  While at his job, he will steal liquor in an attempt to later plant in her father’s car and crash it into the front of his the grocery store where he is employed.  This will lead the police to the Lutterman house and question the father, hopefully allowing the police to discover the truth. 

This plan hits a serious snag when his alcohol theft is discovered by his boss.  As result, his plan will have to wait until he is done serving thrity days in the state workhouse.  In the meantime, his whole world is falling apart around him—Lola dumps him, he will not graduate, his reputation is shattered, his family has lost faith in him and Gretchen is losing hope.  The worst part of Cal’s imprisonment is that his father has passed away.

Before he is done serving his time he finally puts his plan in motion.  After hotwiring the Lutterman car, he plants the alcohol inside and crashes it in to the grocery store to draw the attention of police.

Upon his release from the workhouse he learns that Gretchen’s father has been arrested for the crime and stabbing a policeman.  This is excellent news for Cal, however this won’t put Mr. Lutterman in jail for very long—the truth about the baby must be revealed.  At the trial, Cal is called as a witness, where the defense tries to paint him as trying to protect his “girlfriend”, Gretchen, from her caring father.  Cal does not do well on the witness stand until Gretchen’s mother breaks down and explains that there was a child through Gretchen and her father and that it was killed by Mr. Lutterman.  Upon this revelation, Cal is attacked by Gretchen’s father and subsequently sentenced to life in the Stillwater, MN prison. 

Although Cal has sacrificed so much, he has saved a life and corrected what was wrong in Gretchen’s life.  At the end of the novel, he is content with himself as a person and realizes most of what happens in life is simple and really not important.  The events that have transpired have given him a new perspective on life and outlook toward a the future. 

Upon reflection, Until They Bring the Streetcars Back meets many of the requirements of high quality literature.  The characters face problems that are believable and interesting to students.  Much of the book has one startling development after another to the shock of the characters.  Going through high school, there was always a bombshell about someone or something unexpected floating around in the social circles.  I believe this is relatable to the average reader in that they no doubt have heard horrible rumors about their classmates and wondered who to talk to or how to solve the problem.  

Despite the common thread of a student being in a an unsafe environment, Gretchen’s plight is not solved in conventional ways.  We all have had experiences that don’t have conventional solutions, however I found Cal’s plan a bit short-sighted in its execution and believability.  I don’t know if Stanley Gordon West is setting a solid example to his younger readers by saying a crime being committed is okay as long as it exposes another crime being committed.  This “ends justifies the means” mentality may put some of his readers in a tough spot in their opinion of Cal. 

While reading through the text, I found the characters to be developed well and, although only told through Cal’s eye’s, he describes each important character with past anecdotes and effect observations.  I felt enough information was given for each character representative of their role in the text.  The best example of this was Cal’s descriptions of Lola.  As with any person, when you’re in love with someone, especially someone who may be out of reach, you realize every amazing part of them, whether it be physical, emotional, mental or social.  Cal didn’t skimp on his descriptions of Lola and this took me back to the awkward middle and high school days of daydreaming of my female classmates. 

The words used throughout the text and general social norms were the best indicators that showed the setting of Streetcars. Words and phrases like, “crummy,” “jeez,” “bombed it down to…” and “golly” were dead ringers the story took place in the late 40’s and 50’s in America.  Also, the fact that you could buy hamburger for $0.15, easily and safely hitchhike, or take pleasure in having a complete stranger chase you through the night in a large city is clearly from a simpler and safer time.  Also, Cal’s father remarks about how communists are evil, which was a common sentiment in America during the Cold War.

In Streetcars, West has several major and supporting themes.  Through my examination, I found love, friendship, morality, and sacrifice the major themes with popularity, success and honesty to be supporting themes.  The text provided a spectacular forum for discussion of these themes.  The circumstances surrounding the themes and how they play out, not perfectly but ultimately effective, is true to real life and many situations some adolescents encounter.  At every tough decision we hear Cal’s inner thoughts, the options he has and how these could play out until the platform of the major themes.   

Although all has been generally positive in the review so far, I felt Mr. West explained too much in the novel instead of letting the reader figure parts of the story.  Many of the revelations were simply blurted out, like the fact Jacob was Gretchen’s child, not Helga’s.  This is important, but for its shock value, I have a hard time believing she would loudly disclose this with little prompting.  Instead of drawing us deeper in, too much was revealed too easily.  This could have drifted very easily into the mystery genre, however it was an action/drama (as I interpreted it).  I didn’t have to make many inferences while reading; I read the text and it told me, without having me to do any work to discover the story and its secrets. 

Although I felt the story was revealed a bit too easily, I thought the characters and ethnicities were portrayed positively, especially considering this was newly post-war America.  Jerry is revealed to be Jewish with Cal not really caring.  The closest example I could find of a stereotype was Norwegians being portrayed as quiet in relation to Cal’s father.  This is not an egregious or offensive example and only mentioned in passing.  Cal’s younger sister, Peggy, is viewed as a spitfire but only to improve the fortunes of others such sneaking out to put out carrots for the rabbit and coming to Cal’s basketball game to support him.  His mom, is viewed as subordinate in the family by cooking, cleaning and not working, however, this was the 1940’s and 1950’s so it was more socially commonplace than in 2011. 

Through Cal’s actions and his hardships, I believe students would easily be able to be motivated and inspired by the story’s resolution.  We’ve all felt like the world is collapsing around us and we can’t get out of bad situations, but through determination and hard work we can often achieve our goal and learn something about ourselves in the process. 

The literary elements I saw on display were setting, characterization, style.  The setting was extremely vivd with street names, environment descriptions (inside and outside buildings), local parks, establishments and details included.  I was actually surprised there wasn’t a map included in the book its regional descriptions were so frequent.  The description of the alley by Cal’s house and the abused dog’s pen, while not essential to the story, was described in a way in which I had an image of it tattooed in my mind.

Within these well-described environments the characters were life-like, believable and fit the descriptions of their personalities very well.  While reading, the essence of the character was shown through dialogue, actions and Cal’s descriptions.  Gretchen’s character is a prime example of this.  She was deeply damaged and the book described her very well in this regard by detailing her appearance, her social standing, her few (but important) words and rumors.  Cal would repeatedly describe the emotion in her voice and her appearance to reflect her plight. 

The style of writing is vintage 1950’s.  Although I never heard the phrase, “Bombed down”. I figured it meant, “Went to”.  I honestly don’t think I have heard the term, “Necking” since before my grandma passed away.  Period hallmarks such as Frank Sinatra records, drive ins and cruisin’ around identified the style as sort of sweet “aw shucks” in its delivery.  This got annoying to me after a while, however the style can’t change unless the time period changes, which it didn’t.  In this sense, the book stayed in character and maintained consistency in its style to the reader. 

In retrospect, I believe this book’s prime audience would be middle teenagers, perhaps sophomores or juniors in high school.  Although it takes place in a generally “safe” period in American history, the content and Gretchen’s secret is serious stuff that shouldn’t be discussed until the class can be mature about the subject matter.  Since the main character and hero is a boy and the Gretchen is the female in distress, I believe it would appeal more to boys/men. 

One idea for a mini lesson would be to have a pro and con list of Cal getting involved with Gretchen.  What are the positives associated with him helping her?  What are the negatives associated with helping her?  I would have the students brainstorm and write in their literacy journals.  After ten minutes or so we would conveine as a class and discuss our answers.

Is the pro and con side lopsided?  Do certain examples carry less weight when compared to examples in another column?  I am trying to show that saving someone’s life isn’t as important as missing the big game, etc. and that sometimes what looks like less is really more. 

As a journal activity I would have the students write about how they would handle Gretchen’s situation in 2011 as opposed to 1950.  This would be evaluated on the number of examples listed, depth of answers and relation to self and text.