Genre
Autobiography Novel, Children’s Literature
Setting and Context
Set in the 1940s and 1950s in California
Narrator and Point of View
Told in first-person narration from the perspective of a young Francisco Jiménez.
Tone and Mood
Reflective, Sad, Simple, Naïve
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Francisco Jiménez; Antagonist: The immigrant experience entailing discrimination, immigration agents, and extreme poverty.
Major Conflict
Francisco witnesses the struggles and problems that his family has to face to make a living while navigating the circuit as illegal immigrants.
Climax
The climax perhaps is when the family settles in Santa Maria, California after their return to the United States.
Foreshadowing
The first time Francisco attempts to prove himself as an honest earner on the cotton fields foreshadows his resilience and fortitude later in his life.
Understatement
“At the end of the day, I was tired and disappointed. I had not picked as much cotton as I had wanted to. The pile was only two feet high.”
Francisco understates his efforts in picking cotton bearing in mind he is still a child.
Allusions
The novel alludes to the circuit that involved Mexican immigrants taking on the low-cost labor jobs in California in the mid-20th century.
Imagery
“The garage was worn out by the years. It had no windows. The walls, eaten by termites, strained to support the roof, full of holes. The dirt floor, populated by earth-worms, looked like a gray road map.”
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“To make ends meet.”
Personification
“Finally the mountains around the valley reached out and swallowed the sun.”
