GARY PAK VALLEY OF THE DEAD AIR

The story attempts to acknowledge with subtle impressions the tests and will of the various protagonists of Hawaii through a challenging stench left after the passing of a native man. The disenfranchised descendants of native Hawaiians have a repressed history— along with the plantation workers and various ethnic victims of racial violence but in this story we read about locals coming into their own as Hawaiian individuals through coming to terms with the death of Hookano and the stench that lingers in his wake.

Pak uses interesting imagery like phallic symbolism in the land through the misshapen potatoes growing on a nearby farm. This symbolism can be interpreted in a variety of ways.  As we can also see in the disturbed nature of the sex and fertility of the island how the stench, ie the death of a native, is effecting the land. Residents aren’t making love and the farms aren’t growing adequately sized produce. It seems that the haoles forceful taking of the land is a emasculating. Deprived of their native roles the people of Hawaii are effectively weaker. The land and water breath of the life or lack thereof of its inhabitants.   

The locals speak in Pidgin, which helps the reader understand their non native mentalities while the narrator relays the story in American english. In order to re-establish the sense of harmony the locals propagate hawaiian traditions and the enactment leads to resolution through appreciation of the land and the former owner of the land, Hookano.