Mura Secrets And Anger

Anger is an emotion characterized by antagonism toward someone or something. According to Merriam-Webster a secret is something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others. The definitions of anger and secret perfectly describes David Mura’s life. Mura is like most of us by retaining secrets and anger, causing the air balloon effect. The title, “Secrets and Anger” is an appropriate title for Mura’s essay, because it shows Mura’s struggle of his race and ethnicity throughout his life.
In this essay Mura expresses his anger towards the Broadway production Miss Saigon. Mura “protest . . . [actor equality] against the producer’s casting . . . [Mura] felt disturbed that again a white actor, the British Jonathan Pryce, was playing

a Eurasian . . . role” (Mura 36) Mura goes on to say other Asian-American actors had no chance for the audition (36). Not only the audition infuriate Mura, but Mura is, “upset by the Madame Butterfly plot . . . where an Asian women pines for her white male lover” (Mura 36). When people compress their anger frequently, at some point in life they have to release the anger, and that’s what Mura does. Mura converses about his issues with Mark and Paula, his close friends, about the Miss Saigon production. Paula and Mark argued with Mura and explained, “art represented freedom of the imagination, [which] it meant trying to get in other people’s skin. Isn’t color-blind casting what we’re striving for?” and the argument just makes Mura bitter. In the end, it does not make Mura think art is the imagination of democracy, but a form of reverse discrimination. At the end of their conversation they move onto a safer topic. Mura discusses his conversation with Paula and Mark to his wife Susie, who felt uncomfortable about the discussion. Susie emphasizes Mura should “take [the] disagreement as just another incident in a long friendly dialogue” (Mura 39). This situation made Mura unreasonable because Susie sees both sides of the argument. Thus, this shows “Secrets and Anger” is an appropriate title for Mura essay.
In the essay Mura points out his secrets of shame and regrets.

On the day Samantha Lyn is born, Mura ask himself, “Can I teach my daughter Japanese cultural?” when Mura is barely understanding the cultural himself (Mura 35). Mura feels daunted by the situation because he “decided that [he] was not Japanese . . . [he] was never going to be Japanese, and . . . [he] was never going to be an expert on Japanese cultural” after his trip to Japan and discover his identity as Japanese-American. Mura’s regret, is he never took advantage to learn his Japanese cultural as a young kid, and now sees himself “as a person of color” (Mura 35). All of these regrets put pressure on Mura that he is incapable to teach Japanese cultural to his daughter Samantha and “would rather not discuss, [because] it seems much easier to opt in silence”. Shamefulness is also a worry for Mura. Mura is more attracted to “the ‘beautiful’ bodies of white women” than the other race and ethnicity. Mura also question if he should tell Samantha “[his] own desire for a ‘hallucinatory whiteness,’ of how in [his] twenties such a desire fueled a rampant promiscuity addiction to pornography . . . ?” (Mura 35). At the time Samantha is young and would not know how to take it

in.
The title, “Secrets and Anger” is an appropriate title for Mura’s essay, because it shows Mura’s struggle of his race and ethnicity throughout his life. At the end, Mura and Susie loses close friends do to an argument. Mura is still bitter about the producer’s casting for Miss Saigon. Mura will not be capable to teach Samantha all about Japanese Cultural. Mura will keep secrets from Samantha till he think time is right. Mura’s love for Caucasian women will remain the same. “Secrets and Anger” is an appropriate title for Mura’s essay because Mura is a secretive, angry Japanese-American.