s.e. hinton, the outsiders, 1967 // traci chee, we are not free, 2021
thinking now always and forever about how chapter one of we are not free is an homage to chapter one of the outsiders. using the actions, language, and dynamics of such a classic story about prejudice, found family & belonging as a springboard for a story about japanese american teenagers during world war ii is literally so smart holy shit. i have been deeply interested in the way the outsiders musical on broadway right now integrates race into their portrayal of that classic narrative and traci chee’s loose take on that premise makes my head go approximately one million miles an hour!!!
No but for those of you who've read We Are Not Free by Tracie Chee (if you haven't you've gotta read it like rn it's fucking amazing) and the Outsiders
Doesn't minnow remind you of ponyboy, doesn't Mas remind you of Darry, doesn't Frankie remind you of Dallas, doesn't Tommy remind you of Johnny, doesn't Shigeo remind you of Soda, doesn't Stan remind you of Steve
see the thing is i knew something was up with minnow when i first read his first chapter, i knew something zesty was aroming the air. but it was just the fact that i was reading a HISTORICAL fiction book that made me think like "this is a very serious book about something very serious you can't be saying these characters are fruity" so i just ignored the very suspicious comments about twitchy.
UNTIL IT WAS ACTUALLY, IN FACT, TRUE THAT HE HAD FEELINGS FOR HIM AND ALL I COULD DO IS JUST SAY "FUCK"
sorry there’s just literally no way the ito brothers from we are not free aren’t based on the curtis brothers from the outsiders like… 20 year old oldest brother who is often compared to superman and played football in high school and had great things in his future but had to drop out of college and come back home to take care of his little brothers when his parent(s) died and is always pressuring his youngest brother to do well in school because he wants him to go far… 16 year old middle brother who is bad at school but deeply charming and good with people… 14 year old little brother who is sensitive and artistic and the main character of the book… yeah.
we are not free characters ranked on how aware they are of minnow’s homosexuality
Keiko: Keiko canonically knows Minnow is gay <3
Tommy: Tommy is both incredibly insightful and undeniably queer so yeah I think he clocks it pretty early on. I headcanon him as aroace so i can honestly see him looking at the way Minnow acts towards Twitchy and objectively thinking like “ok yeah that’s exactly how Shig used to treat Yum-yum before they started dating that must just be how the Ito boys act when they have a crush”
Frankie: tbh I headcanon Frankie’s Uncle Yas as gay (old man living alone in San Francisco whose nephew stays with him because “he needs someone to take care of him”) and i think Yas has been like. subtle about it but not overly secretive and so they don’t discuss it but Frankie has seen the old photographs and letters Yas keeps in the attic and has put the pieces together and so I feel like he also clocks Minnow relatively early on because of his previous familiarity with the concept of homosexuality
Yuki: I also headcanon Yuki as gay (both because she likes softball and because of Bette’s line about “I don’t think I’ll ever understand her—she’s fifteen! You’d think she’d recognize a handsome boy when she saw one, but her disinterest is palpable”) so I feel like she knows what’s up.
Mas: In a very big-brother way, Mas has always known that there is something undeniably different about Minnow and he hasn’t quite been able to put a finger on what it is, but he has his suspicions.
Shig: Very similarly to Mas, Shig is aware of Minnow’s differentness but has always chalked it up to him being shy like Tommy. I do have a WIP where Minnow comes out to Shig and Shig is like “oh fuck everything is starting to make sense” so yeah i think he does not know but if he was told it would explain a lot for him and make perfect sense.
Mary: Has not put much thought into it but if told would be like “yeah obviously”
Stan: Has not put much thought into it but if told would not be surprised.
Yum-yum: Has not put much thought into it but if told would be kind of surprised.
Bette: I am honestly unsure if Bette is aware of homosexuality as a concept.
Aiko: I am pretty sure Aiko is not aware of homosexuality as a concept.
we are not free. but we are not alone.
one song for each We Are Not Free Character
playlist notes under the cut
I. Minnow Ito - Everything Stays - Adventure Time
Everything stays, right where you've left it / Everything stays, but it still changes / Ever so slightly, daily and nightly / In little ways, when everything stays
The fact that both of Minnow’s chapters take place in San Francisco and bookend the novel make this the perfect choice for him as he reflects on how Japantown has both changed yet stayed the same as the city of his childhood
II. Shig Ito - Little League - Conan Gray
And when we were younger / We wore our hearts right on our sleeves / Why did we ever have to leave? / Little league
Shig’s chapter is basically him reflecting on his childhood in Japantown as he prepares to leave it and I think this song is perfect for that! There’s also the line “Do you remember days on our old block?/ Messin' with our neighbors who called the cops” which is SO Shig&Twitchy-core… them and their shenanigans!!
III. Yum-yum Oishi - You Are Loved - Defiance, Ohio
And as the story unfolds over time / Things we once knew, they do dissolve into the sky / She swears she sees a brand new constellation / Every time somebody we know dies
I love the bit in Yum-yum’s chapter where Tommy and Minnow are making up constellations and I have always associated Yum-yum with astral imagery because of it! I think this song really speaks to her unsurety about the future and I love the line “the radio plays a familiar song,” because Yumyum’s chapter is also where we get the first reference to Mas’ Silvertone radio!
IV. Bette Nakano - Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying - Sabrina Carpenter
'Cause I'm young and I'm dumb / I do stupid things when it comes to love / And even if I always end up crying / No, you can't blame a girl for trying
I feel like I don’t even have to explain this one like this encapsulates Bette’s vibe EXACTLY!!! She would be such a teen pop girlie <3
V. Frankie Fujita - Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1 - The Mountain Goats
Play with matches if you think you need to play with matches / Seek out the hidden places where the fire burns hot and bright / Find where the heat's unbearable and stay there if you have to / Don't hurt anybody on your way up to the light
Thinking about this song as a Frankie song makes me FERAL!! something about the fire in this verse as a metaphor for his anger, him knowing he needs to do whatever he can to make sure he doesn’t hurt anybody with that anger… the first line of this song is “Do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive”...yeah. i luv you frankie fujita <3
VI. Stan Katsumoto - Once More with Feeling - Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
Don't let the people make you think / That just because you're young you're useless / You know it's not naive to think that you can change the things around / And that no man is an island
This is mostly in reference to Stan wanting to go to college to be a lawyer for the ACLU which is a piece of his character that I absolutely LOVE!!
VII. Aiko Harano - Warrior Girl - Nicole Visco
Warrior Girl only goes to where she wants to / Warrior Girl maybe has a heavy sword / Warrior Girl has no idea where she jumps to / But she jumps to where she wants to / And she's never ever bored
This is absolutely Aiko’s song!!! She is a scrappy little warrior girl and I adore her for it!! There is also a refrain in this song about “maybe someday / there'll be some way I could get to roam free” which. yeah. I love you Aiko <3
VIII. Yuki Nakano - Crazy Dreams - Carrie Underwood
Here's to you free souls, you firefly chasers / Tree climbers, porch swingers, air guitar players / Here's to you fearless dancers, shaking walls in your bedrooms / There's a lot of wonder left inside of me and you / Thank God even crazy dreams come true
This just reminds me a lot of Yuki’s dream of playing in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League!! especially because there’s a part of the song that says “Never let a bad day be enough / To go and talk you into giving up” which reminds me so much of Yuki’s chapter!!
IX. Mary Katsumoto - Something About Lemons - Chumped
And every day, I grow a little more resentful / Of the choices that I did or didn't make / Wanted this to feel a little more eventful / Every day that I'm awake just feels the same
This is SO Mary!! especially the line about being resentful of the choices that she didn’t (get to) make… like that’s literally the plot of her chapter.
X. Kiyoshi Tani - Lion’s Teeth - The Mountain Goats
And my arms get sore / And my palms start to sweat / And the tears roll down my face / Till my cheeks are hot and red and soaking wet
John Darnielle called this song a “revenge fantasy” about standing up to his abusive stepfather and I think that Kiyoshi deserves that kind of catharsis.
XI. Mas Ito - human - Christina Perri
But I'm only human / And I bleed when I fall down / I'm only human / And I crash and I break down
Song about pretending to be strong and fake a smile and force a laugh until you literally can’t anymore and it fucking destroys you… hello Mas Ito!!
XII. Keiko Kimura - Who Knew - P!nk
That last kiss, I'll cherish until we meet again / And time makes it harder, I wish I could remember / But I keep your memory, you visit me in my sleep / My darling, who knew?
Fucked up behavior of me to choose this for Keiko but yeah it’s about Twitchy. Feels self-explanatory.
XIII. Twitchy Hashimoto - Brother - Kodaline
We've taken different paths / And traveled different roads / I know we'll always end up on the same one when we're old / And when you're in the trenches / And you're under fire, I will cover you
Very much chosen with the Twitchy&Shig dynamic in mind but also because Twitchy literally refers to the other characters as his “siblings back in Topaz”... and something about the line about “we were… the kings and queens” combined with the motif of royalty surrounding Twitchy & his relationship with Keiko (“company of kings,” Aiko’s thought about Twitchy treating Keiko like a “queen,” Keiko’s comparing Twitchy to a prince, the Cinderella motifs in Keiko’s chapter…. yeah) and ofc the reference to trench warfare… this is his fucking song.
XIV. Tommy Harano - Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Well, I've been afraid of changin' / 'Cause I've built my life around you / But time makes you bolder / Even children get older / And I'm getting older too
something about Tommy finally making the decision to leave his parents behind… he’s built his life around a family that doesn’t treat him right but time has made him bolder as he’s grown up. and like. the references to snow in both the book and the song are beautiful and aplenty but i don’t have the time to unpack that.
XV. All Of Us - Disposable Youth - No-No Boy
Disposable you / Disposable me / Disposable hearts / Indestructible teens
Off an album named for the year the Japanese American incarceration of World War II began, this is songwriter Julian Saporiti’s “imagining of what it would have been like to be ever experience a Memorial Day bbq with people who looked like me” and has a very similar vibe to the scene at Tanforan where they celebrate of the infield after the Americans defeated the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. somethin’ bout teenagers getting to be wild and loving and free <3
