Fixing the Car, Beck St. Bronx, NY [1978]

“Fixing the Car, Beck St. Bronx, NY [1978]” refers to a scene in the short story by William Melvin Kelley that vividly portrays an everyday, yet deeply emotional moment in a working-class community. In the narrative, the protagonist—along with his friend or neighbor—struggles with the task of fixing a broken-down car. Set against the backdrop of the Bronx in 1978, a time of urban decay and economic difficulty, the act of repairing the car becomes more than just a simple mechanical task. It’s a moment charged with themes of identity, community, and the desire for control in a world where many things seem out of one’s hands.

In the story, the car is symbolic. On one level, it represents the independence that the car owner once had, a sense of mobility and the ability to transcend the narrow confines of their circumstances. But on another, it’s a reflection of the mechanical, industrial world that sustains people in their everyday lives, and its breakdown is a metaphor for the fractured reality the characters live in.

When approaching a task like repairing a car in a setting like Beck Street, you can imagine a sense of resourcefulness and communal collaboration. The characters are not just individuals solving a problem—they are part of a larger network of people who rely on one another. The repair process itself might not be a simple step-by-step guide to fixing a specific mechanical issue, but rather an illustration of how people can rely on each other for support, whether in knowledge, tools, or physical labor. The repair task becomes a metaphor for survival in a challenging environment, where even the smallest success or progress feels like a hard-won victory.

As you read through the story, it becomes clear that the car repair is an ongoing and sometimes frustrating process. There’s a sense of urgency, but also a quiet acceptance of the difficulty involved. The two men, or perhaps a group of people, work on the car not just because they need it to work, but because the act of fixing it allows them to reaffirm their place in the world and their ability to take control of their immediate circumstances, no matter how much the larger world may be outside their grasp.