Deportation at Breakfast by Larry Fondation 1957

¶ … Deportation at Breakfast by Larry Fondation. Specifically it will discuss the reasons why I dislike the story. "Deportation at Breakfast" is a very short story that shows a small diner where the owner is abruptly deported by a group of law enforcement, leaving it untended and unsupervised. The narrator "takes over" the kitchen and the diner, making his own and then other patron's breakfast. The story is unreal and even unethical because there are no other employees, no one seems to notice but the narrator, and the owner, "Javier," is taken away from the business he created, while the narrator picks up and takes over without any remorse or regret for the real owner and what's happening in his life.

I dislike this story for many reasons. First, there is no consideration for the owner, Javier. The narrator does not think "what will happen to him," or "what about his business," he just thinks about his breakfast burning on the grill. The author writes, "I could smell my eggs starting to burn. I wasn't quite sure what to do about it. I thought about Javier and stared at my eggs. After some hesitation, I got up from my red swivel stool and went behind the counter" (Fondation). In essence, the narrator profits from Javier's deportation, and Javier suffers greatly. He not only loses his home, he loses his business. Whether he was here illegally or not, he loses out, and there is no compassion or empathy in the story. The narrator simply takes over and starts making money that is not rightfully his.

Another reason I dislike this story is that the narrator takes advantage of the situation, and that is never addressed in the story, either. The author makes it seem innocent enough. The other people in the diner do not even notice the deportation. (How can that be? That is another area of the story that is unreal. People do not see immigration authorities come in and handcuff the cook? Come on, that is not the way it would happen. Even if the diner had been crowded, it would be hard to miss activities like that.) Only the narrator witnesses it, immediately figures out what is going on, and then takes advantage of the situation because he does not want his eggs to burn.

The customers do not even recognize that he is not the man who took their orders, which is another unreal aspect of the story. When I eat out, I like to know who is serving me and I like to interact with them. I don't see them as just a "server," they are a person, and I tip better if they are friendly and attentive. All of these people are portrayed in the story kind of like zombies. They never relate to Javier or who he is, and they don't even notice when he's removed. I know that people can be that removed and distant from what happens around them, but it gives the story a sense of unreality, and I don't like what it implies. It says that as a people, we don't care about those around us. That may be true, but it doesn't portray us kindly as a people, and I don't like that.

There's another aspect of the story that really bothers me, and that's the restaurant aspect itself. I've worked in restaurants, and I know that there is simply no way that Javier could have run a diner, even a small one, with no other help. You simply cannot do it alone. It's not like a home kitchen. You have multiple orders (like the six diners who come in and shove tables together), you have dishes to do, you have prep work to do, and you have to cook and serve. Even a tiny diner with only a few tables requires at least a cook, server, and dishwasher, and most require many more staff people. The narrator says, "By eight-thirty, I had my hands full. With this kind of business, I couldn't understand why Javier hadn't hired a waitress. Maybe I'd take out a help-wanted ad in the paper tomorrow. I had never been in the restaurant business. There was no way I could run this place alone" (Fondation). If he'd never been in the restaurant business, he wouldn't just have his "hands full." He'd have no idea how to manage his time to get all the orders done at the same time, let alone serve them while trying to cook other orders. He was right, he couldn't run the place alone, and if it got really busy, he'd have a meltdown. I think it is clear that the author never worked in a restaurant. He portrays it as straightforward and even simple, but working in a restaurant is anything but simple. It is clear he doesn't really have a clue about what it entails, and he might be one of those distant customers that goes into a restaurant and really doesn't look at what's going on around him. He's removed from reality, and it shows in his story.

Finally, the narrator doesn't feel any remorse for Javier or his situation, and he doesn't even question whether he has the right to "take over" the business. He just plans to hire a waitress and continue on. That's not fair, and it's certainly not legal. He has a moment where he seems to have a conscience (I thought of telling them I didn't work there) (Fondation), but it doesn't last long. You just can't take over someone's business like that, it's not right, and the narrator just seems to take it in stride, which indicates he's not honest, he's not ethical, and he's not just.