What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky

The choice of the second-person point of view in this story serves a purpose. The narrative includes several sensitive topics, including sexual exploitation of a minor, statutory rape, and child endangerment. By putting the reader in the place of Amara, the story explicitly asks readers to see her difficult life through her eyes and feel the resignation and self-preserving numbness that she does.

The story is principally an examination of How Mothers Shape Their Children. Amara is a con artist not because she wants to be but because she never had a choice to do otherwise. This in turn shapes how she understands her situation: She “never considered another lifestyle, tethered to [her] mother by familiarity and a notion of loyalty” (86). She follows the path set for her, not even using her own name most of the time.

Amara’s acceptance of her lot in life stands in marked contrast to the behavior of her mother—another example of a defiant daughter insistent on forging her own path. She opted for their lifestyle even though she might have had other options: “She could have gone to her father, head bowed so low she’d have gravel and leaves in her hair, but she’d married against his wishes, moved to the States against his wishes, and had you against his wishes” (82). In addition to being proud, she feels entitled to a certain lifestyle, carrying around the picture of her former house; rather than a photo of her deceased husband and infant daughter, this “is the picture she clutches when she cries” (81). Though she too is victimized (specifically, by the men she brings home), her total lack of compassion for her daughter makes her a villainous figure; the best the narrator can say of her is that she too is a product of circumstances and temperament, observing, “Some people find it easy to be good when the going is good but lack the fortitude for hardship. Your mother is among them” (82).

By contrast, Amara’s sense of well-being hinges on her believing the best of her mother. She tells herself, for instance, that the first time her mother dropped her when she was six it was a genuine accident. However, Amara’s perspective changes when she discovers she’s pregnant and accepts another unchosen role: that of a mother herself. Through this new lens, she is able to question the choices her mother made in raising her. When Amara repeatedly states that they need to find somewhere to stop, her mother lashes out that Amara is accusing her of being a bad mother. Amara is stunned into silence, but her internal monologue suggests she agrees with her mother’s defensive self-assessment: “Was she a bad mother? You were fifteen years old and pregnant because she wanted a price cut on a battered green Toyota. You weren’t sure how to answer, so you didn’t” (89). The sight of the mother fixing her daughter’s ponytail further affirms this, as Amara realizes she never received that kind of gentle care from her mother.

Amara’s eager embrace of her pregnancy—e.g., her perusal of baby clothes—suggests that it has given her not only a new perspective on her childhood but also new hope for her future. In having a baby, she has a chance to provide the kind of mothering she never received herself. Her real fall in the store brings in a windfall of money but is a tragedy from Amara’s perspective; in losing her pregnancy, she loses both the opportunity to have love in her life and her incentive to separate from her mother.