The Distance Between Us Literary Elements

Coming of age novel

The novel is written in the context of love.

First-person narrative

Sad, optimistic, sanguine, hopeless

The central character is Reyna Grande.

The major conflict is that Grande's mother moves to America to join her husband, an immigrant worker, to provide for the family. Grande learns this with disbelief because she is left behind to live with Abuela and her other siblings. The family lives in abject poverty.

The climax comes towards the end when Reyna manages to join college despite life obstacles and becomes the first in the family to get a degree.

Reyna’s mother’s misfortunes are foreshadowed by her abusive lover’s.

Poverty is understated in the text. The conditions Reyna and her siblings go through in Abuela’s house can be equated to hell. Despite going hungry, Reyna and her siblings are abused, infested by parasites and fungal infections. Similarly, the children are exposed to poisonous scorpions. Consequently, Reyna and her siblings live in unimaginable worst situations.

The story alludes to the challenges of poverty which hinders a family from progressing.

The imagery of poverty dominates most of the book, which paints an image of suffering. Reyna's childhood was hell because of the extreme poverty that she was subjected to. Abuela's house's conditions also help readers see the extent of suffering that Reyna and her siblings had to put up with.

The main paradox is that Reyna's mother is unpredictable and dramatic. When Reyna's mother leaves for America, she promises that she will join her husband in supporting the family. Later, Reyna's mother comes back with another child and notifies the kids that she is no longer with her husband. Later, the mother again leaves and gets married elsewhere with another man.

N/A

‘Orphans’ is used as metonymy for hopeless, sufferers and cursed.

Poverty is incarnated as the oppressor.