Power Diminishes Choice
During plantation times, the luna was the highest ranking position for a non-haole person, a position held with great honor and responsibility. Luna of the Landing, a short story by Marshall M. Doi, portrays the parallels between plantation times and the literary present through the eyes of an elderly man. The story follows one of his adventures, with a youth who he has befriended, to the landing peninsula where he once held charge as a luna during the plantation times on the Hāmākua Coast of Hawaiʻi. The reader is lead to believe that the youth the old man has befriended may be autistic because his character never speaks. The story follows the old man as his life as a luna ends and his life as a whole comes to an end. The old man’s past life as a luna affected how he chose to live his life in his later years, and consequently affected the life of the young boy.
Although the old man’s ethnicity is not revealed in the short story, the reader is led to believe that he is Portuguese because the “Portuguese were often employed as middlemen between owners and Asian workers, becoming lunas or supervisors” (Portuguese Workers Arrive). The luna was more often than not Portuguese because they were considered closest to Europeans by the haole men that owned the plantation lands. Since they were considered European, Portuguese workers were treated better than most of the Asian workers: offered one acre of land, a house and better working conditions. Although given favor over Asian workers, they were seen as less than the haole plantation owners. “The luna, or boss, on the plantation was invariably Portuguese or haole and many luna were not disinclined to use a whip or physical force to insure the productivity of their laborers. Such treatment was an insult to a people proud of their heritage and dignity” (Ogawa and Grant). In the short story, the old man recalls the many cold nights he had spent on the landing peninsula waiting for tardy steamers to come in, giving orders to start the winches and giving instructions to muleteers on where to deliver the supplies. “The luna was in charge of all operations at the landing and few were more important than he” (Doi 50).
After this recollection is where the story takes a turn; the old man realizes that deep within himself, he relies on the young boy just as much as the young boy relies on him. Though the period of his life being a luna is finished, coming to the landing peninsula allows him to soak in the memories of the time where he had made his goal, “the old man’s life had never been one of expanding horizons” (Doi 50). Being the luna had made the landing peninsula into his own little world and though he was no longer a luna, he was not ready to let go of the memories of that period in his life. Not only is the landing peninsula a safe haven for the old man, but also for the young boy. For someone who the reader is led to believe to have autism, the landing peninsula is a place where the young boy can explore and experience life without being confined by the social standards of the world. The cove he adventures at acts as a place where the young boy can release all of his energy without causing any harm to himself or those around him. “Both the man and the youth were useless to the world beyond the pine trees, and it was useless to them” (Doi 51).
As the story progresses, it is revealed that the young boy’s parents are moving him to the city the next day, but the reason why is not told. Whether it was to get him the help he needs for his condition or to get him out of their hair, it leads the old man to become depressed because he will no longer have a companion to go to the landing peninsula with. Though the old man is in a different period of his life, the landing peninsula allows him to escape the life where nothing seems to be happening for him and enter into the memories of being a luna and being in charge. This is something he will choose not to do if the young boy is no longer with him. The old man knew that this was the last time he and young boy would share the silence in the cave together, while the boy listened to the fissures of the waves through the ground, that a phase of his life was ending; just like his phase of being a luna had ended. Since this phase of the life for both the old man and the young boy was coming to an end, the old man had decided for both of them that their whole lives should be ended as well with suicide by walking into the waves of the incoming storm on the landing peninsula.
When read the first time, the last few paragraphs of the story just seemed like the old man was taking the young boy to catch crabs one last time before he moved. But after reading it again one realizes that the old man is taking the young boy with him to commit suicide. In the last few paragraphs, Doi builds up the suspense of the story by talking about how violent the waves are getting, and at one point, “an exceptionally large wave struck with such momentum that it hurled itself entirely over the piece of land” (Doi 53). The old man sees that once again what he has will become only a memory. He is not ready to let go of his life of being a luna, the landing peninsula, and his young friend. The old man sees himself and the young boy as useless to the world outside the pine trees of their adventures. He comes to the realization that neither of them serve nor contribute to society, which is why they continue to escape their realities by fleeing to the landing peninsula.
The old man then decides that the world doesn’t need either of them, a decision for the young boy that he does not deserve to make. Perhaps the young boy’s parents were sending him into the city to get help for his condition, help that he will never get because the old man chooses his destiny for him. This decision by the old man can be interpreted as him channeling the power he once held as a luna at the landing peninsula one last time. His choice to eliminate both himself and the young boy from the world can be seen as a type of euthanasia because the young boy has no idea what is going on and the old man decides for him that “no, it was not right for the boy to leave this place. It was unfair” (Doi 53). Ultimately, the old man is choosing for them both to end their lives together.
Even if the decision was not the old man’s to make, it was a powerful ending for a powerful story. There are many parallels shown between the old man’s life as a luna ending and the phase of his life ending by returning to the landing peninsula. For the young boy to be drawn into the old man’s suicide made the story come full circle. The old man was bred into a role of power over others and once that role no longer served a purpose, he felt like he no longer had purpose. Neither character contributed to the outside world or had benefitted from the outside world, so to end their lives where they both felt safe and accepted, with a friend by their side is a beautiful way for their lives to end. Granted, the old man had no right to take away the young boy’s life, but if the story had ended any other way it would not have been worth writing or reading. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, but the old man felt it was the only way for both him and the young boy to go.
Works Cited
Ogawa, Dennis, and Glen Grant. "The Japanese in Hawai'i: 1885-1920." Picture Bride Movie. Web. <http://www.picturebridemovie.com/japan.html>.
Doi, Marshall M. "The Luna of the Landing." Island Fire: An Anthology of Literature from Hawaiʻi. Honolulu: U of Hawaiʻi, 2002. 46-53. Print.
"Portuguese Workers Arrive." Short Stories. Hawaii History: A Community Learning Center, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. <http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm? fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=305&returntoname=Short Stories&returntopageid=483>.
