Lost In Yonkers

Bella is Grandma’s daughter and Jay and Arty’s aunt. She has an intellectual disability, and the boys speculate that this is a result of Grandma’s repeatedly hitting her in the head. Bella demonstrates her disability early in the play, becoming lost on the way to the movie theater and forgetting key facts about her nephews’ lives, such as their ages and their mother’s recent death. She struggles to retain information and cannot hold down a job, so she works in her mother’s candy store. Her mother and other relatives infantilize her, telling her that mentally, she is no more than a child. Bella consequently struggles for agency and responds with tantrums when she doesn’t get her way—for example, when the boys refuse her offer of ice cream sodas. She has no space or money of her own and no way to escape the assumption that she cannot care for herself. She is caught in a cycle in which Grandma, who caused Bella’s traumatic brain injury and disability, refuses to allow her space to take care of herself or pursue her dreams of marriage and a family of her own.

Though the world treats Bella like a child, she serves as a foil to Grandma, demonstrating some of the warmest and most emotionally intelligent behavior of anyone in the play. Where Grandma is cold, distant, and emotionally abusive, Bella is warm, friendly, and desperate for love. She wants her nephews to stay in the apartment above the candy shop because she is lonely and craves close familial interaction apart from her mother. In a way, her entire personality is a direct rebuke to her mother, as Bella strives to be everything that Grandma is not. Though her mother and brother tell her that she is not mentally robust enough to take care of a family, Bella is desperate to have children. Bella tells Grandma that her own children will be happier than Grandma’s were because Bella will love and protect them. Rather than perpetuating her mother’s cycles of violence, Bella searches for an opportunity to rebuke cruelty with love. Bella understands the repercussions of generational violence and plans for a future that differs wildly from her past, illustrating one method of Healing From Generational Trauma.

Though Bella’s attempts to establish a family of her own in the play are ultimately unsuccessful, Simon offers reason for optimism about her future. After Bella’s falling out with Grandma, her engagement to Johnny falls through not because the family convinces Bella she is incapable but because Johnny backs out. Bella returns to her mother’s home despite Grandma’s cruelty, taking care of her mother and gently maintaining her goal of marriage and children. The fact that she attempted to bring about change is important, and even though she does not achieve her goal, she does make progress. By the end of the play, she is one of the few characters who has demonstrated more than just a desire for change. She takes meaningful action and is one of the few characters brave enough to say that the status quo is unsustainable. After Bella returns, Grandma’s demeanor toward her shifts; she becomes quiet and affable, allowing Bella to make plans for her future without comment. Simon uses Bella as an example of how empathy and determination can improve domestic life and begin to heal generational trauma.

Jay and Arty are the play’s protagonists, though they spend much of the play relegated to the background by the actions of the adults in their lives. At 15, Jay is the older of the brothers and the more academically inclined. His more intellectual approach to life, coupled with his older-brother status and Grandma’s reputation, makes him feel responsible for Arty. With their mother gone, their father traveling across the United States, and Grandma incapable of anything other than coldness and cruelty, Jay recognizes that he and his brother are on their own. The powerlessness of his situation forces Jay to mature quickly, taking control where he can to protect his brother and father; his arc develops the theme of the Transition From Childhood to Maturity.

Jay’s desire to protect his younger brother takes the form of leading by example. When faced with a problem, Jay considers what he should do rather than what he wants to do. Still, he is not immune to childish impulses, raiding the candy store with Arty when the adults are asleep. These nighttime escapades suggest he is not yet the mature, responsible person he feels he needs to be but still very much a teenager. Simon juxtaposes these occasional childish impulses with the complicated adult problems he faces to illustrate that Jay has maturity thrust upon him by circumstance rather than choice. In many ways, he is still a child.

The demands Grandma places on Jay contribute in large part to his maturation. Over the course of the play, Jay grows to understand that his grandmother’s intent is to instill strength and resilience in her grandsons, though her methods are suspect. While he dislikes her and the way she treats her family, by the end of the play, he thanks her for her lessons. This dynamic is introduced from the play’s start, when Grandma tells Jay she disapproves of his anglicized name, preferring the traditional “Yakob.” In this moment, Grandma is attempting to impose a new identity on Jay by forcing him to adhere to her expectations. While Jay never adopts his grandmother’s preferred name, the struggles between Jay and Yakob represent his character’s journey throughout the play, from youth to maturity, independence to family obligation. By the end of the story, Jay has assumed responsibility for his brother and matured into a sensible young man.