ICCE – Carlton Ritz

In the short story “Gorilla, my love”, the true importance of somebody’s name and the value it holds to their identity is exhibited by the text. In this story the main character is Hazel, a young girl who tells of her past. She shares about living with her family and some of her most common memories such as going to the movie theaters together and riding home with her Grandfather from work. One of the other characters who the girl is most fond of is “Hunca Bubba”. This is a man who is very close with Hazel and seems to be either a friend of her father’s or possibly related to the family. Hazel shares how she greatly enjoyed her times, often riding in the car with Hunca there and later in the story brings up a promise they made around the conflict of the plot. Right from the start of the story we learn he wants to “change his name” and it is clear that Hazel does not want  him to. She shares that she has always known him as Hunca Bubba and that even if his real name was what he now wanted, it was not who he was. By making this regard Hazel is pointing to the importance of the identity of a person. This is very similar to the story of White Rat in which the main character battles with the identity his name gives him and the identity he desires. In this story however there is less of a focus on self identity and more on outer identity and relationship. Hazel makes it clear that she loves Hunca Bubba and that she cherishes their memories and experience together. For her it seems that calling him by this nickname has brought them even closer and given them a deeper bond. For this reason at the end of the story when she brings up the fact he wants to be called something else, it clearly hurts her. I think this is maybe because  it feels like he is becoming foreign to her and he is losing the identity she loves. She even takes what seems like a stab at him when he calls her “Peaches”, she angrily responds saying “My name is Hazel”. This is the first time the main character strongly identified with her own name, previously talking about all the nicknames she is called and seems to be fond of them. I believe that Hazel, like many people, grew stronger bonds using nicknames and for her she had a built identity for herself and “Hunca Bubba”. For this reason, when the name of somebody close to her is changing it hurts because it feels like their identity has changed. The name, which seems very simple, actually holds much more value.