Genre
Short stories
Setting and Context
America during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
Narrator and Point of View
An unnamed, third-person omniscient narrator tells the stories.
Tone and Mood
The tone is grim; the mood is bleak.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Rafael is the protagonist; the threat of AIDS is the antagonist.
Major Conflict
The major conflict of the stories occurs when the depiction of the Chicanos is given to the reader as they grew up as queer in Los Angeles.
Climax
The climax of the story is reached when the family is baptized, as it shows a change in mindset towards their community.
Foreshadowing
Rafael's contraction of AIDS is foreshadowed by the fact that he refuses to use condoms during sex.
Understatement
The importance of gender and sexual identity is understated throughout the stories.
Allusions
The story alludes to how our childhood shapes our outlook on life.
Imagery
The imagery of unprotected sexual activity is present in the novel.
Paradox
The fact that Rafael was in search of a better life, yet contracted AIDS is an example of paradox in the story.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The crumbling walls are a metonym for the persecution of homosexuals.
Personification
N/A
