Lost In Yonkers

“She was the only one at Mom’s funeral who didn’t cry.”

Before Grandma appears on the stage, her grandsons talk about her, building the audience’s expectations for her character and signaling that she will play an important narrative role. This recollection suggests that Grandma is cold and unsympathetic. Contrasting Grandma’s demeanor with the crying of the other funeral guests suggests both that the boys’ mother was a beloved figure in her community and that a fracture exists between Grandma and the boys’ branch of the family.

“I bet she’s lost again.”

Like Grandma, Bella is discussed before her first entrance. This comment introduces Bella as a person without direction, with the word “again” suggesting that she gets lost regularly. Bella is lost in both a literal and symbolic way. She is wandering through the streets because her intellectual disability limits her ability to navigate. On a broader scale, she is also lost in life, treated as a child by her mother and unable to achieve her goals.

“Did you know you could love somebody who died before you were born?”

Bella discusses her grief for her father, whom she never met. Because she never met her father, she has turned him into an idealized parent, in contrast with her abusive mother. Bella is desperate to believe that there may have been someone who loved her the way she longs to be loved, establishing her