All God's Children Can Shake It Off, Like Taylor

The title of the short story “All God’s Children Can Dance” there is no clear interpretation that seems to be the one that author would want to be understood. Therefore I will try to find the interpretations which in my belief are the most sound and seem to have the most meaning in relation to the story.

Firstly is the interpretation in which the title is literal. All of the children which belong to God, whichever one it is, are able to dance. This seems likely to be referring to Yoshiya since he has been told throughout his life that he is the child of God. Since he ends up being known for his dancing by his ex-girlfriends doing and ends up dancing on the baseball field at the end of the story, it appears that he fits the role of God’s child since he is able to dance.

But this leads into the next possible interpretation for the title. Since Yoshiya is a child of God from the meaning of the title it makes him the child of his mother’s and Mr. Tabata’s teachings. He strains against this identity and belief in his own mind, but yet he dances as a child of God. This changes the meaning of being a child of God, but not being able to dance.

The third interpretation delves deeper into the more metaphorical meanings of the title. What if the being able to dance is being able to live despite all of the harsh circumstances that Yoshiya faces in his life yet is able to make it through. It is fairly clear in the story that Yoshiya’s childhood was fairly harsh. Without a father he did not have as much support financially or mentally. This puts strain on his mother to fill that void with even more caring for him. His mother is then overbearing to some degree. This creates the relationship that the two of them have. The strange Oedipus complex combined with Yoshiya’s dislike of her faith. Also the relation that Yoshiya had with Mr. Tabata and his faith were strange and hard to deal with. Mr. Tabata was a mentor for him, but Yoshiya still has strayed from his teachings. Also the revelation of Mr. Tabata’s lustful thoughts for Yoshiya’s mom make things even more awkward as Yoshiya and Mr. Tabata found a common link in this strange fact. Then there is his difficult relation to his old faith. Before the story took place Yoshiya had been a follower of the same faith as his mother. His mother told him certain things that made his faith a difficult one to bear. This faith was made by his mother telling him that he belonged to God because of him being born despite birth control and other similar things that have no real grounding to making him a child of God. The faith that he held took away from his own personal joy, especially when his college girlfriend’s proposal was refused by him. All these things make up the harsh life that Yoshiya has lived through. Yet despite all these difficult matters that would mentally break someone else he has been able to survive and get through them. This then is the meaning of God’s children being able to dance. They are able to get through the hard times, which others would have failed in. In effect this is the same as the earthquakes about which we discussed in class. The earthquakes and tremors of Yoshiya’s life are the turbulent times and experiences that Yoshiya has had to face.

The third interpretation of the meaning of the title is the key to the link between the title, the story, and the earthquake. The relief and the aid given by Yoshiya’s mother and other believers has nothing to do with the link to the earthquake in the story. In actuality Yoshiya’s ability to dance through the earthquakes around himself is the link to the actual earthquake that struck Kobe, and therefore the true meaning of the title is that the ability of God’s children to dance is what lets them get past the traumas they have faced.