IN UNDER THE FEET OF JESUS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
VINCENSIUS ISMOYOJATI Student Number: 044214010
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
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IN UNDER THE FEET OF JESUS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
VINCENSIUS ISMOYOJATI Student Number: 044214010
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
When I ponder my journey to get schooling in Sanata Dharma University so far, I realize that it is His love lingering on me makes my peace with my conscience in battling the fights I always wonder whether I can win or not, especially when home becomes a hell. I have been trapped on His love and my journey to get schooling in Sanata Dharma University ensures me that I cannot escape from His love. In Te confido.
Time passes so rapidly and I have to finish my journey to get schooling in Sanata Dharma University, making my undergraduate thesis complete. Thinking about completing my undergraduate thesis, I want to recall all people through the years that have influenced and helped me. Particularly, I want to express my sincere gratitude to my undergraduate thesis advisor, Maria Ananta Tri Suryandari S.S., M.Ed. I would not finish this undergraduate thesis without her patience, guidance, help, tolerance, and generosity. I also would like to give my deep appreciation to my Co-advisor, Dewi Widyastuti S.Pd., M.Hum. for her very careful reading, informed suggestions, and tactful advice.
In particular, I must thank Ibu who always encourages me to continue my study, supports me financially and prays for my future, though I sometimes hurt her heart. I wish to thank my eldest sister Mbak Rosa, my brother in law Mas Yogo, and my ‘naughty’ niece Angel in Pulo Merak for motivating me to finish my study and helping
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thank Bapak and I am sorry for what have happened between us. I also gratefully acknowledge Mbah Gito in heaven, Mbah Warno, and Pakde Marno for their love, protection, guidance, support, advice, and many things in my life that have opened my mind for a different view. I am greatly indebted to Bulik Hesti, Dik Alex, and Dik Dinan for letting me to use their computer any time I need. My special thanks go to Soni, Siswanto, and Ignas who always help me when everything is going to be a mess.
My sincere gratitude also goes to all lectures who have taught me and all staff in English Letters secretary for serving me during my study in Sanata Dharma University. I also thank all my friends in Sanata Dharma University for everything we have shared together so far.
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1. Theory of Character and Characterization ………... 9
2. Theory of Exploitation ………. 12
B. The Exploitation toward the Migrant Farm Workers ……… 45
C. Viramontes’ Worldview ……… 55
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ………. 59
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in Under the Feet of Jesus. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2008.
According to Lukacs, a good literary work reflects reality, and a detailed analysis of its literary devices, such as the characterization, can reveal the essence of truth of a particular historical and material condition of society. In this undergraduate thesis, the writer analyzes the characterization of the major characters in Helena Maria Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus as the reflection of exploitation toward migrant farm workers in the United States of America.
In this undergraduate thesis, there are three objectives to guide the analysis. The first is to see how Viramontes characterizes her major characters. Secondly, it is to understand how the characterization of the major characters reflects the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers by showing that the major characters are typical exploited migrant farm workers. The last is to find out Viramontes’ worldview, her view of the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers.
In order to accomplish the objectives, the library research is used since the data and theories are collected from some books (written sources). Reflectionism approach is applied to show that the major characters are typical exploited migrant farm workers and Viramontes’ worldview.
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in Under the Feet of Jesus. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2008.
Menurut Lukacs, karya sastra yang baik itu merefleksikan kenyataan, dan penelitian yang mendalam pada unsur-unsur kesusastraannya, misalnya penokohan, dapat menunjukkan intisari dari kebenaran tentang kondisi historis dan material dari masyarakat. Dalam studi ini, penulis meneliti penokohan tokoh-tokoh utama dalam novel karya Viramontes yang berjudul Under the Feet of Jesus sebagai refleksi atas eksploitasi terhadap para pekerja pengembara di perkebunan yang terjadi di Amerika Serikat.
Dalam studi ini, terdapat tiga pertanyaan yang dirumuskan untuk memandu analisis. Pertanyaan pertama adalah untuk melihat bagaimana Viramontes menampilkan tokoh-tokoh utama novel tersebut. Pertanyaan kedua adalah untuk memahami bagaimana ponokohan tokoh-tokoh utama itu merefleksikan exploitasi terhadap para pekerja tersebut dengan menunjukkan bahwa tokoh-tokoh utama itu merupakan tipe pekerja pengembara di perkebunan yang dieksploitasi. Pertanyaan yang terakhir adalah untuk menemukan pandangan Viramontes tentang eksploitasi yang dialami oleh para pekerja tersebut.
Dalam tujuan untuk menyelesaikan analisis, metode kepustakaan digunakan karena data dan teori diperoleh dari beberapa buku (sumber tertulis). Pendekatan refleksionisme digunakan untuk menunjukkan bahwa tokoh-tokoh utama novel tersebut merupakan tipe pekerja pengembara di perkebunan yang dieksploitasi dan pandangan Viramontes tentang eksploitasi yang dialami oleh para pekerja tersebut.
A.Background of the Study
Georg Lukacs of Hungary (1885-1971) viewed that a literary work had to be assessed on its ability to reflect realities of life and felt that only realistic forms of literary works were artistically and politically valid (Webster, 1990: 66). Lukacs and his followers adapted and applied the techniques of formalism, believing that literature reflected realities of life and a detailed analysis of literary devices could reveal the essence of truth of a particular socio-historical situation, and this approach to literary analysis was known as reflectionism or vulgar Marxism (Bressler, 1999: 215).
Based on Lukacs’ view above, it can be said that novels as a kind of genres of
literature are reflections of life, and a detailed analysis of intrinsic elements of a novel such as its characterization can reveal the essence of truth of a particular socio-historical situation the author of the novel has tried to depict in the novel. When a critic gives a novel a close reading, declares reflectionism, it is the critic’s job to show how the characters within the novel are typical of their socio-historical situation and the author’s worldview (Bressler, 1999: 215).
Helena Maria Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus is a novel which is
The novel conveys a realistic image of the lives of migrant farm workers (Mexican-American migrant farm workers) in the fruit fields of California.
Through her novel, it seems that Viramontes wants to convey social issues experienced by the migrant farm workers. In relation to the social issues experienced by the migrant farm workers, James A. Henretta, David Brody, and Lynn Dumenil in their book entitled America: A Concise History, Volume 2 state that in the United States of America, discrimination and exploitation were omnipresent in the Mexican community during 1930’s until 1990’s (1999: 685). It is also understandable why
Viramontes wants to convey the social issues in her novel because Viramontes herself states that she dedicates her novel to her parents, Mary Louise LaBrada Viramontes and Serafin Bermudes Viramontes who met in Button Willow picking cotton (Viramontes, 1996: vii). Viramontes, as the daughter of migrant cotton-pickers, uses the harsh reality of the daily existence of migrant farm workers as the theme of her novel. It seems that the novel reflects what happens to the migrant farm workers in the fruit of fields of California. Viramontes tells and shows how the major characters are exploited for merely the sake of profit without regarding human life as primary in her novel as a reflection of what happens to the migrant farm workers in the United States of America.
In relation to Lukacs’ view that a novel must be assessed on its ability to
reflect realities of life and it is the critic’s job to show how the characters within the novel are typical of their socio-historical situation and the author’s worldview, the writer decides to analyze the characterization of the major characters in Viramontes’
Under the Feet of Jesus as the reflection of the exploitation toward the migrant farm
reflects the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers by showing that the major characters are typical exploited migrant farm workers and to find out Viramontes’ worldview, her view of the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers.
Furthermore, in the study, the writer focuses on the analysis on the characterization of the major characters as Henkle also states that it is the major characters in a novel that deserve the fullest attention and the focal experiences of the novel is presumably understood by understanding the major characters (1977: 92).
Through analyzing how Viramontes has depicted her major characters’
struggles and actions, hopefully, it may heighten the awareness of the social issues involved in the novel, especially, the issues about the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers. Therefore, the writer chooses the topic.
B.Problem Formulation
There are three problems which have been formulized in the study. The three problems are:
1. How does Viramontes characterize her major characters?
2. How does the characterization of the major characters reflect the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers?
3. What is Viramontes’ worldview, her view of the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers?
C.Objectives of the Study
objectives of this study. The first is to see how Viramontes characterizes her major characters. Secondly, it is to understand how the characterization of the major characters reflects the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers by showing that the major characters are typical exploited migrant farm workers. The last is to find out Viramontes’ worldview, her view of the exploitation toward the migrant farm
workers.
D.Definition of Terms
There are several terms which are going to be used in this undergraduate thesis. To avoid confusion and misunderstanding, it is important to define those terms.
1. Worldview
Worldview is a comprehensive conception or image of the universe and of humanity’s relation to it. Daiches states that worldview is the overall perspective
from which a person sees and interprets the world (the experience of life) (1981: 367). An author’s worldview is an overall perspective that sums up what he or she
knows about the world (the experience of life), how he or she evaluates it emotionally, how he or she responds to it volitionally, so his or her work can reveal the essence of truth of a particular socio-historical situation by creating typical characters, actions, and events (Daiches, 1981: 367-370).
2. To reflect (Reflection)
In Lukacs’ view, to reflect is to create an image of richness and complexity of
and his followers stressed literature’s reflection. Reflection here is not just a reflection of a flood of realistic detail but a reflection of the essence of a society. In Lukacs’ view, “reflection” means more than rendering the surface appearance, but it
means providing truer, more complete, more vivid, and more dynamic view of the world around (Widdowson and Brooker, 1997: 94). A novel is a reflection of life, so the novel is not itself reality but rather a particular form of reflecting reality, but the author depicts what he or she really sees, not what he or she prefers to see and reveals the essence of truth of a particular socio-historical situation by creating typical characters, actions, and events (Daiches, 1981: 366-371).
3. Exploited Workers
A. Review of Related Studies
A related study done by a researcher on Viramontes’ works can be found in
Introduction of The Moths and Other Stories, Viramontes’ collection of stories. The stories in the collection are The Moths, Growing, Birthday, The Broken Web, The Cariboo Café, The Long Reconciliation, Snapshots, and Neighbors. Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano from Stanford University gives important comment on Viramontes’ The Moths
and Other Stories. In the introduction, Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano firstly expresses her opinion about Chicana writers in general and then gives comment on the stories anthologized in the collection of stories, especially on the characterization of the female characters of the stories.
wave of creative expression that is carrying them to the forefront in the literary creativity in the United States of America which has been most apparent in the area of poetry, where a veritable explosion of Chicanas’ creative energies has occurred, and Chicana writers have moved more recently into fiction (Viramontes, 1995: 9).
According to Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano, with The Moth and Other Stories, Viramontes makes an important contribution to the growing body writing by Chicanas and Latinas in the United States of America whose art speaks to the reality of color women (Viramontes, 1995: 9). She states that Viramontes does not create idealized versions of feminists successfully battling patriarchy and remarks that Viramontes who is acutely aware of women’s dilemmas creates female characters that are a contradictory
blend of strengths and weakness, struggling against lives of unfulfilled potential and restriction forced upon them because of their sex (Viramontes, 1995: 10). The female characters in the stories are aware that something is wrong with their lives, and what is wrong is linked to the rigid gender roles imposed on them by their men and their culture, often with the aid of the Church, and it is clearly seen in the presentation of female characters in Growing, The Long Reconciliation, and The Broken Web (Viramontes, 1995: 10).
-Bejarano also points out that Viramontes is mainly concerned with the social and cultural values which shape women’s lives and against which they struggle with varying degrees
of success, and Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano remarks that most of the stories develop a conflict between a female character and the man who represents the maximum authority in her life, either father or husband (Viramontes, 1995: 11). She states that Viramontes also shows the collusion of the Catholic Church in the socialization of women in rigid gender roles in her stories and it can be found in The Moths, Birthday, and The Long Reconciliation (Viramontes, 1995: 11-12).
Moreover, Viramontes’ female characters in the stories pay dearly for getting
away from traditional values concerning women, and the exploration of their sexuality often brings negative consequences and Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano gives examples about it in the explanation of the characterization of female characters in Birthday, Neighbors, Snapshots, The Long Reconciliation, and The Broken Web (Viramontes, 1995: 12-20). In her explanation about The Cariboo Cafe, she states that Viramontes reveals another facet of her social consciousness as a writer, one with which Viramontes has been increasingly concerned lately since the story, The Cariboo Café, places the conflict in Central America at the center of Viramontes’ narrative world (Viramontes, 1995: 20).
Finally, Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano concludes that on the whole, Viramontes’ language is terse and innovative and she also states that Viramontes’ exploration of
In this study, the writer does not analyze the characterization of the female characters of Viramontes’ The Moths and Other Stories as Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano has done. The writer analyzes the characterization of the major characters in Viramontes’
Under the Feet of Jesus. By analyzing the characterization of the major characters and using Lukacs’ view, that a novel must be assessed on its ability to reflect realities of life and it is the critic’s job to show how the characters within the novel are typical of their
socio-historical situation and the author’s worldview, the writer wants to understand how the characterization of the major characters reflects the exploitation toward the migrant farm by showing that the major characters are typical exploited migrant farm workers and tries to find out Viramontes’ worldview, her view of the exploitation toward the
migrant farm workers.
B.Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
According to Robert Gill in his book entitled Mastering English Literature, a character is a person in a literary work and characterization is the way in which a character is created (1995: 127). People that are met in a literary work are the characters of the literary work and the author’s craft employed in presenting the characters is what
personalities and selected some which are then put together (1995: 127). The characters have some sorts of identities which the author has chosen to characterize the characters. The identities of the characters can be made up by the appearances of the characters, the conversations done by the characters, the actions done by the characters, thoughts going on the characters’ heads and so on (Gill, 1995: 127) and the author uses the individual
elements of the characters as the means to present what the characters are like (Gill, 1995: 135). In short, Gill remarks that characterization is a method and character is the product (1995: 127) in explaining the distinction between character and characterization.
In relation to the characterization, Henkle adds that there are three factors of characterization employed to give a character the stature of a major character. He demonstrates the factors in characterization which enable authors to communicate human qualities of the characters and guide readers to an understanding of the human themes of novels. Those factors are: the complexity of the characterization (Henkle, 1977: 88), the attention given to certain figures (Henkle, 1977: 90), and the personal intensity which a character seems to transmit (Henkle, 1977: 90). He also adds that major characters in a novel are portrayed, and given their prominence as major characters, through those factors (Henkle, 1977: 87).
Henkle divides characters within novels in two categories, major characters and secondary characters, in order to distinguish between those prominence in novels and those whose functions which are largely supportive or projective (1977: 88). Of course, major characters in novels perform crucial functions in elucidating themes of novels. Major characters have projective roles in novels. Major characters are very significant in novels as Henkle states that major characters which emerge in novels are largely projective because the dramatizations of issues of human experience in novels are convinced by major characters’ presentations (1977: 93-94). Major characters’
appearances have projective roles in which the significance of experiences in the novel is always almost inherent in those characters.
that make up the human context in his or her novel. Henkle also adds that secondary characters can act as foils to major characters in novels (1977: 95). Another group of secondary characters acts within the shadow of the major characters, reduplicating, in different ways, the experiences that engross major characters in novels (Henkle, 1977: 97). Secondary characters also have function to construct a composite picture of the human condition that is at issue in a particular novel (Henkle, 1977: 99) and in this way, secondary characters function as composite renditions of human situation in a particular novel (Henkle, 1977: 100).
2. Theory of Exploitation
Peter Barry in his book entitled Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory points out that exploitation happens when people (workers) are treated as tools in the process of production because the workers experience what so called as alienation which is the state which comes about when the workers are estranged from products of their labor, the act of production, other workers and society as whole, their own peculiar essences as humans, and nature as well as they, consequently, undergo the process of reification in which the workers are turned into commodities useful in market exchange (2002: 157). Exploited workers are workers who become alienated and undergo the process of reification in the process of production. The exploited workers become things and their existences are regarded for merely the sake of profit without regarding their human lives as primary.
157). Of course, the workers belong to the working class (the subordinate class within capitalism) which are exploited by the ruling class (capitalists) and the working class are characterized by having to exchange their capacity to labor for the goods (commodities) that they require in order to survive (Edgar and Sedgwick, 2002: 204).
As mentioned before, the exploitative process of production above makes workers experience alienation and as the result, they also undergo the process of reification. According Andrew Edgar and Peter Sedgwick in their book entitled Cultural Theory: The Key Concepts, the process of production leads to five manifestations of alienation which injure the workers in many ways.
First, the worker is alienated from the product of his or her labor (Edgar and Sedgwick, 2002: 19). It is understandable since the products of his or her labor become the property of the boss (the employer). When the worker has sold his or her labor power for a certain part of his or her life to the boss (the employer), the products of his or her labor are not his or her own.
work, and in his or her work the worker feels outside him/herself. The worker is at home when he or she is not working, and when the worker is working, he or she is not at home. Third, the worker is alienated from other workers and from society as a whole, and this way, the worker is treated as an isolated individual and is judged by his or her ability to fulfill a pre-existing function within the production process (Edgar and Sedgwick, 2002: 19). Therefore, the worker is separated from his or her fellow human beings. The worker experiences separation from other human beings.
Fourth, the worker is alienated from his or her full humanity, and in this way, the worker is bereft of his or her humanity’s potential to determine his or her own destiny
(Edgar and Sedgwick, 2002: 19). The worker is estranged from his or her own peculiar essence as a human being because his or her special traits and abilities are not needed, used, or developed by his or her economic activities which degrade the worker to the level of a mere physical force and the worker even is estranged from his or her own body which must be maintained as a physical subject, not because it is part of his or herself, but also that it can function as an element of the production process.
The last, Edgar and Sedgwick also add that the worker is also estranged from nature (2002: 18), and it is understandable since the process of production under capitalism makes the worker just spend most of his or her time working to get money in order to survive as the demands of working and surviving in the capitalist society.
force” when capitalists place profit ahead of human life (Barry, 2002: 157). Thus, the
workers are turned into commodities useful in market exchange.
Bressler gives an example of the exploitation. In America the capitalists exploit the working class by determining their salaries, and working conditions, among many other elements of their lives (Bressler, 1999: 219).
3. Lukacs’ Theory of Reflectionism
Georg Lukacs of Hungary (1885-1971) viewed that a good literary work had to be assessed on its ability to reflect realities of life and felt that only realistic forms of literary works were artistically and politically valid because his theory was based on the assumption that good literature revealed the essence of truth of a particular socio-historical situation (Webster, 1990: 66-67).
In addition, Peter Widdowson and Peter Brooker in their book entitled A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory shows that in Lukacs’ view, “reflection” means more than rendering the surface appearance, but it means providing truer, more complete, more vivid, and more dynamic view of the world around (1997: 94). A novel is reflection of life, and therefore it is not real, but it nonetheless involves the mental framing which eludes photographic representation (Widdowson and Brooker, 1997: 94). An author creates an image of the richness and complexity of life from which emerges a sense of the order within the complexity and subtlety of lived experience (Widdowson and Brooker, 1997: 94-95). It means that the text the author has created is not just a reflection of a mere realistic detail but a reflection of the essence of a society.
capitalism, Lukacs and his followers tend to emphasize the negative effects of capitalism such as exploitation (Bressler, 1999: 215).
C.Theoretical Framework
This study requires theory of character and characterization to analyze major characters within Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus. Theory of character is very useful
to strengthen the illustration of the major characters which are going to be analyzed. Then, theory of characterization is going to be used to see how the author characterizes her major characters. Furthermore, theory of exploitation and Lukacs’s theory of
relectionism are needed to understand how the characterization of the major characters reflects the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers by showing that the major characters are typical exploited migrant farm workers. By using theory of exploitation and Lukacs’s theory of relectionism, the writer also will show Viramontes’ worldview,
A.Object of the Study
The object of this study is a novel entitled Under the Feet of Jesus written by Helena Maria Viramontes. It was first published in the United States of America by Dutton in 1995. In doing the study, the writer uses Under the Feet of Jesus which was published by Plume in 1996. The novel consists of 176 pages and is divided into five chapters.
In brief, Under the Feet of Jesus is about the family of thirteen-year-old Estrella, a family of Mexican-American migrant farm workers, in the fruit fields of
California. The novel focuses on the family who go through much turmoil.
Estrella labors hard with her family in the fruit fields of California. They work hard under the scorching sun all day for meager wages which can not satisfy their
fundamental needs. It is also told in the novel that Estrella's father abandoned her, her
mother named Petra, and her siblings years ago. Estrella‟s real father left the family destitute, leaving the family to look for backbreaking work in the fruit fields. Estrella‟s
pesticide which washes over his face. Estrella and her family take care of Alejo who is
sick. Estrella and her family become strained as they have to both work and take care
of Alejo. Nothing that they can do to help Alejo as Alejo‟s condition diminishes everyday. Eventually, Alejo‟s condition gets worse and worse and he become critically ill, but Estrella insists on saving Alejo. Estrella and her family must take him to the medical clinic where she smashes up the nurse in the medical clinic after goaded by the nurse's insensitivity to the family's privation and shortage of money. Shortly, they take him to the hospital.
B.Approach of the Study
The writer uses an approach to literary analysis which was developed by Lukacs in analyzing the novel. Lukacs and his followers adapted and applied the techniques of formalism, believing that literature reflected realities of life and a detailed analysis of literary devices could reveal the essence of truth of a particular socio-historical situation (Bressler, 1999: 215).
The approach which is known as vulgar Marxism or reflectionism (Bressler, 1999: 215) declares that texts are reflections of realities (Bressler, 1999: 219). Then, the analysis is by showing how an author‟s text reflects that characters within the text
are typical of their socio-historical situation and the author‟s worldview through an examination of the fictional world‟s characters, settings, or any other aspects of the text
such as its characterization, these critics believe they can reveal the “reality” of the text and the author‟s Weltanschauung, or worldview and it is the critic‟s job to show how
the characters within the text are typical of their socio-historical situation and the author‟s worldview (Bressler: 1999: 215).
In relation to the topic, the writer applies the approach in analyzing major characters within Helena Maria Viramontes‟ Under the Feet of Jesus. The analysis will mainly focus on the characterization of the major characters in the novel. Furthermore, the analysis will ultimately concern with how the characterization of the major characters reflects the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers by showing that the major characters are typical exploited migrant farm workers, and Viramontes‟ worldview, her view of the exploitation of the migrant farm workers. Therefore, the most appropriate approach is reflectionism.
C.Method of the Study
This study is a library research which means that the data, theories and information are collected from books and others writings related to the study which support the subject matter of the study as the materials. The primary source is Helena Maria Viramontes‟ Under the Feet of Jesus. Furthermore, to analyze the novel, there
are some important books as secondary sources. Some of the books are Charles E. Bressler‟s Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, Peter Barry‟s
Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and cultural Theory, Roger B. Henkle‟s
After reading the novel in order to get details and deep understanding of the novel, the writer started to analyze the novel and the analysis was focused on obtaining the answers of the three questions stated in the problem formulation. There were some steps the writer took in analyzing the novel. The first step was finding out how the major characters were characterized by applying the theory of character and characterization. In this step, the writer analyzed some individual elements used by Viramontes to convey human qualities the major characters embodied and made comparison between the major characters and secondary characters by analyzing three factors of characterization employed to give the characters the statures of the major characters.
In the next step, writer tried to analyze the description of the condition faced by the major character, what the major characters‟ view toward the condition, and what
the major characters did in facing the condition, and it gave the writer explanation about how the characterization of the major characters reflected the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers by showing that the major characters were typical exploited migrant farm workers. The writer then showed that the description of the condition faced by the major characters, what the major characters‟ view toward the condition,
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There are three parts in this chapter. Each part of this chapter is the answer of each question which has been stated in the problem formulation. The first question stated in the problem formulation is how Viramontes characterizes her major characters, so the first part contains explanation of how Viramontes reveals her major characters with their individual elements which makes identities of the major characters what they are. The following part goes on to speak of the second problem stated in the problem formulation, how the characterization of the major characters reflects the exploitation toward the migrant farm workers. The second part is to show how the major characters which have been created by Viramontes in particular ways are typical exploited migrant farm workers. The last part involves discussion about Viramontes’ worldview, her view of the exploitation toward the
migrant farm workers, reflected in the way Viramontes characterizes her major characters with their human qualities to convey understanding of the human issues of the novel.
A. The Characterization of the Major Characters
happens to her characters throughout the novel, and she sometimes tells and shows previous events underwent by her characters via series of flashbacks.
In the novel, there are some characters that are considerably more significant than other characters. Their appearances have projective roles in which the significance of experiences in the novel is always almost inherent in those characters. The characters whose roles in the novel are largely projective are Estrella, Alejo, Petra, and Perfecto Flores.
1. Estrella
As the product of characterization, Estrella has identity which is particularly presented by Viramontes in Estrella’s individual elements which show the human qualities which the character embodies, and Viramontes tells and shows what Estrella is like through the individual elements. By concentrating on Estrella’s
individual elements, the human qualities Estrella embodies can be seen as Gill has suggested in analyzing a character (1995: 135-145).
Viramontes presents Estrella as the oldest daughter of the Mexican American family which is the focus of the novel, a migrant farm worker family. Viramontes directly tells that Estrella is the oldest daughter of the family in the following passage, “Being the oldest, just turned the corner of thirteen (the mother
thought the number unlucky, and they both waited anxiously for her fourteen birthday), Estrella came upon the barn first. (9)”. Through the passage, Viramontes directly indicates that Estrella is the oldest daughter of the family.
the character speaks. By concentrating on the way the character speaks as Gill has suggested (1995: 135), Estrella’s relationship with other characters can be seen. In
her conversation with Perfecto Flores or other characters about Perfecto Flores, Estrella always emphasizes that Perfecto Flores is not her papa (Viramontes, 1996: 16, 27, 34, 35). The way Estrella speaks indicates that her relationship with Perfecto Flores is not close although they have lived together for years. The fact that Estrella is not close to Perfecto Flores does not mean that Estrella has no respect for Perfecto Flores. She still respects him as a man who always helps her and her family, especially in horrible situations. Viramontes emphasizes Estrella’s respect to Perfecto Flores when Estrella expresses her sincere gratitude to Perfecto Flores who has helped her to save Alejo by saying “Thank You, Perfecto Flores” (155),
and it gives Perfecto Flores an honor as a man for the first time in his life due to the fact that during his lifetime, one never says such the words with such honest gratitude (Viramontes, 1996: 155).
On the contrary, the relationship between Estrella and her mother Petra is so close. Viramontes illustrates the close relationship between Estrella and her mother Petra in Estrella’s sympathy and care of her mother who always works hard by
saying “Don’t you ever tired?“ (42), “How you feeling today, Mama?“ (61), “How
you feeling, Mama?” (122), or “You okay, Mama?” (167, 170). When she sees her
mother tired after working hard for long hours, she often shows her care and sympathy by saying the expressions above.
(45). She was thankful to Alejo. She understood why Alejo stole the fruit and she showed her care to Alejo who stole the fruit in order to supplement his meager wage by saying the statement to Alejo. Viramontes also shows Estrella’s actions
which illustrate her sympathy and care of anything around her, for example, her treatment to her sister’s plastic doll (Viramontes, 1996: 7), her generosity to
Toothless Kawamoto (Viramontes, 1996: 56-57) and her carefulness to Alejo when he is sick, being pesticide poisoned, shown in the chapter three and chapter four of the novel .
What Estrella is like also can be seen in how she thinks. Through series of flashbacks, Viramontes often displays Estrella’s past life and Estrella’s musings about her past life, especially her memories about her real father and her experiences after her father left the family destitute, not returning from Mexico which created so much turmoil in the family. By using this technique, Viramontes wants to indicate that what Estrella knows of life comes from her mother who has been abandoned by Estrella’s real father. From her musings about her past life,
Viramontes shows that how she thinks about life looks a lot like how her mother thinks about her pathetic and harsh life she has experienced.
Like her mother, Estrella realizes that she has to work hard in order to survive. Working hard is the only way to continue her life and she does not know when she can get better life. “Morning, noon, or night, four, fourteen, or forty it was
all the same. She stepped forward, her body never knowing how tired it was until she moved once again. Don’t cry.” (53), is a passage as an example of how
hardships she must endure in working and how she never gives up, Viramontes presents Estrella as a girl who is strong and tough. The hardships she must endure in working make her strong and tough when she has to face horrible and difficult situation in her life.
Even, Estrella learns that it is her own strength she must trust in not God’s to
carry her through the hardships she faces. It happens when she and her family take Alejo who becomes critically ill to the medical clinic. In her sorrow and frustration, she curses God, thinking “God was mean and did not care and she was alone to fend
for herself” (139). She finally realizes that she and other migrant farm workers live
in an unfair world which leads her to fights back (Viramontes, 1996: 146-150), demanding that the nurse in medical clinic should give her family the last of their money back so Estrella and her family can take Alejo, who is getting progressively sicker due to the pesticide that is sprayed on the field where she and her family work, to the hospital (the Corazon Community Hospital). In this way, Viramontes presents Estrella as a brave girl who often faces hardships and horrible situations as a migrant farm worker and finally loses her faith in God.
Although Estrella is strong, tough and brave, she is like other migrant farm workers who still get nervous of seeing the border patrol (the immigration officers) who are always in the hunt for the migrant workers without documents as shown in her thought when seeing the border patrol (the immigration officers), “The border
Concentrating on the appearance of the character (Gill, 1995: 138) and how the character dresses (Gill, 1995: 139) also gives a description of human qualities Estrella embodies. Viramontes illustrates the poverty and the terrible work under the unforgiving sun in the fruit fields Estrella faces every day through Estrella’s appearance and Estrella’s dress.
Viramontes often describes the poverty and how as a migrant farm worker Estrella has to work hard every day by using descriptions of her appearances as the means. “She became aware of her own appearance. Dirty face, fingernails lined
with mud, her tennis shoes soiled, brown smears like coffee stains on her dress where she had cleaned her hand.” (137) is a passage as an example of how
Viramontes shows Estrella’s poverty that makes her have to work hard in the fruit fields every day by using descriptions of Estrella’s appearances as the means. Due
to her poverty, Estrella has to work hard in the fruit fields every day and she never cares about her dirty appearance.
Through Estrella’s dress, Viramontes shows Estrella’s poverty that makes
her have to work hard every day. “Her shoes were caked with mud and laced above
her trousers dusty from a full day’s work” (72) and “The floral fabric of her dress
was thin from repeated washes and the reddish blue violet poled again the searing sunlight” (103) are just two passages as examples of how Viramontes depicts
Estrella’s poverty and hardships of work as a migrant farm worker through
Estrella’s dress. Like other migrant farm workers in the novel, Estrella is so poor
The social standing of the character (Gill, 1995: 141) and the company of the character (Gill, 1995: 143) Gill also has suggested in analyzing a character can reveal how Viramontes tells and shows that Estrella is a migrant farm worker and comes from a working class family. Viramontes illustrates Estrella as a migrant farm worker who has to work hard in order to survive as other migrant farm workers she belongs to. “In the last labor camp, near the water spigot where the farmworkers got their drinking, Estrella used her mouth into a turn pocket to prove it.” (28) is a passage which implies that Estrella and her family move from place to
place to labor in fields as migrant farm workers so Estrella’s friends are other migrant farm workers she meets in labor camps.
It is also suggested by Gill to concentrate on what a character does to see what human qualities a character embodies (1995: 144). Viramontes frequently shows Estrella’s daily activities, laboring in the fruit fields in order to survive and suffering from labor for long hours at meager wage under terrible working and living condition throughout the novel to show that Estrella is a hard worker who will not give up facing hardships and difficulties under terrible working in the fruit fields. She is very tough. The following passage is an example how Viramontes show Estrella’s struggle in working.
Viramontes shows that Estrella is tough and brave. The fact that Estrella is tough and brave is also revealed through her actions in insisting on saving the sick Alejo whom she has her first love experience (Viramontes, 1996: 121-130), and smashing up the clinic nurse after goaded the nurse’s insensitivity to the family
privation and shortage of money (Viramontes, 1996: 149-150).
Estrella appears to be a tough adolescence because she is frequently shown to be strong and powerful in facing hard labor, hardships, frustration, poverty, and discrimination throughout the novel. Viramontes often shows how Estrella struggles to survive. Viramontes wants to illustrate Estrella as a girl about to cross the perilous border to womanhood, and in the arms of Alejo, Viramontes shows Estrella who tastes the joy and pain of first love due to the fact that Viramontes also shows how Estrella has her first love experience with Alejo which creates joy in her heart (Viramontes, 1996: 85-90) but she also has to learn the meaning of sacrifice and love when she loses Alejo who is critically ill because of pesticide poisoning and must be taken to hospital in her attempts to save Alejo which are described by Viramontes in the last two chapters of the novel.
Viramontes particularly makes Estrella perform crucial functions in elucidating human issues of her novel. Besides presenting how Estrella struggles to survive as a migrant farm worker, Estrella’s first love experience with Alejo, and Estrella’ attempts to save Alejo in her novel, Viramontes also presents Estrella’s
24-26), her experience with Maxine in her last labor camp (Viramontes, 1996: 28-38) using series of flashbacks. By doing so, Viramontes makes the roles of Estrella are largely projective in the novel.
Considering what Henkle has explained about major character (1977,88-90), it is apparent that Estrella is one of the major characters due to the fact that Viramontes depicts Estrella as a complex characters with the individual elements to show the complex human qualities Estrella embodies as a character, makes Estrella appear many times throughout the novel which occupies much of the attention of the novel, and reveals Estrella’s harsh life with its complex problems she must
endure as the personal intensity that Estrella seems to convey.
2. Alejo
As a character, Alejo is a figure made by Viramontes in particular ways. Viramontes gives Alejo identity which can be seen in his individual elements. Alejo as a character emerges in the novel to elucidate the human issues of the novel and Alejo is one of major characters in the novel.
Gumicindo to emphasizes that Alejo is more educated than other migrant farm workers besides using how Alejo speaks as means in Viramontes’ characterization.
Viramontes presents Alejo as an orphan and his grandmother who lives in Texas is his only family he has. Viramontes shows that Alejo is an orphan and his grandmother who lives in Texas is his only family he has in Alejo’s explanation
about his family to Estrella and Petra when he and Gumicindo come to Estrella’s
temporary house and give some peaches to them. In the passage below, Alejo tells about his family because he wants to indicate that he asks nothing in return after giving the peaches to Estrella and Petra who then give him and Gumicindo six tin of pinto beans.
--My mother’s dead, and Alejo cleared his voice, but the stone of his throat did not go away, my grandma’s in Texas. Then he added, I’m here with my cousin, saying it because he thought for a moment she would take the beans, back as if not having a mother meant he had no family. (45).
Alejo and his cousin Gumicindo come to the fruit fields from Texas to work and collect money in order to continue his study and help his grandmother. Through Alejo’s explanation about his family, Viramontes shows that Alejo is an orphan and
his grandmother who lives in Texas is his only family he has.
In analyzing a character, Gill also suggests to concentrate on how a character thinks (1995: 136). From how Alejo thinks, Viramontes describes human qualities Alejo embodies. He loves his grandmother very much since he knows that “she would do anything to allow her grandson to get schooling” (50-51). Knowing
that his grandmother works hard for his future as shown in the following passage, “Alejo thought of his grandmother working in Edinburg, Texas, ironing, baby
sell at the Swap Meets, or making tamarind and hibiscus to sell after Sunday mass.”(50), Alejo has a great ambition to make what his grandmother’s wish to him
comes true, and it becomes his motivation in facing terrible working as a migrant farm worker in the fruit field.
Alejo also believes that what he does in the fruit field is not forever as “His
grandmother had reassured him, this field work was not forever.” (52), and he always imagines that he someday will make his grandmother proud of him, making his grandmother’s wish to him come true, and it makes him strong while working.
Alejo has to delay his ambitions to continue his study due to his poverty, and he is forced to leave his grandmother in Texas in order to work as a migrant farm worker. Viramontes shows Alejo dream in this passage below:
And every time he awoke to the pisca, he thought only of his last day in high school. He planned to buy a canvas backpack to carry his books, a pencil sharpener, and Bobcat bookcovers; and planned to major in geology after graduation. He loved stones and the history of stone because he believed himself to be a solid mass of boulder thrust out of the earth and not some particle lost in infinite and cosmic space. With a simple touch hand and a hungry wonder of his connection to it all, he not only became a part of the earth’s history, but would exist as the boulders did, for eternity. (52).
Taking a look on how the character dresses (Gill, 1995: 139) as Gill has also suggested in analyzing a character, it can be seen that Viramontes often depicts Alejo’s poverty by showing how Alejo dresses. “He wore black shoes that stuck
away in front of him. She noticed right away how his feet were. He was bigger than his trousers and his cuffs rode high above his ankles.” (43-44) is a passage as an
change his clothes he wears which is not suited for the size of his body anymore, but he has no money to buy new clothes.
The appearance of a character (Gill, 1995: 138) is also important to be noticed in analyzing a character and Viramontes uses Alejo’s appearance when he is critically ill to show how Alejo really suffers from pesticide poisoning as shown in the following passage, “She felt as if she held nothing, his body like a phantom of a
man once made of hearty flesh. She was amazed at the thickness of his ribs, though his skin was tissue loose and soft.” (117). Using Alejo’s appearance when he is
getting progressively ill, Viramontes shows how he really suffers from his bad condition.
From the conversations done by characters (Gill, 1995: 127), it can also be seen human qualities of the character Viramontes has chosen to characterize Alejo. From the conversation between Estrella and Perfecto Flores about Alejo, Viramontes shows how Alejo who is usually talkative has totally changed after his decline, being critically ill due to pesticide poisoning, Alejo becomes taciturn. In the conversation, Estrella says, “He can’t talk anymore. He loves to talk, Perfecto,
don’t you see?”(126) to convince Perfecto that Alejo has totally changed since
Estrella knows that Alejo becomes taciturn because he is distraught over his illness. What a character is like can also be indentified from what the character does
fields but he wants to continue his study. Working in the fruit fields as a migrant farm worker cannot create a better life for him but he can do nothing to improve his precarious economic situation, except stealing the ripe and soft fruit to supplement his meager wage. “For the pay we get, they’re lucky we don’t burn the orchards
down.” (45), Alejo tries to justify his thievery but his thievery even worsens his
precarious economic situation and his life because he suffers from pesticide poisoning after a small plane releases a white shower of deadly pesticide which washes over his face when he does his thievery (Viramontes, 1996: 77-78). He
blames himself and thinks, “Was this punishment for his thievery? He was sorry, Lord, so sorry.” (77).
Viramontes creates Alejo as a complex figure that embodies human qualities to convey human experiences of her novel. By presenting Alejo’s actions--stealing
the ripe and soft fruit, his first love experience with Estrella, his thought of his grandmother, his dream to continue his study, and especially on his decline after a small plane releases a white shower of deadly pesticide which washes over his face
when he does his thievery, Viramontes conveys human experiences of her novel in
presenting Alejo. Viramontes specially makes Alejo to perform significant roles in illuminating human issues of her novel.
Regarding what Henkle has pointed out about how a character attains the
level of stature as a major character (1977: 88-90), it is obvious that Alejo is one of the major characters in the novel due to the fact that Viramontes depicts Alejo as a complex character to illustrate complex human qualities Alejo embodies as a character, makes Alejo’s appearances frequent throughout the novel which gives
Estrella, Petra, and Perfecto Flores who continually talk about him, and reveals Alejo’s decline, his helpless and hopeless condition after being poisoned when a
plane release a white shower of deadly pesticide over his face which worsens his precarious economic situation and his life as a migrant farm worker as the personal intensity that Alejo seems to transmit.
3. Petra
Being one of the characters in Viramontes novel, Petra has human qualities which are particularly presented by Viramontes in Petra’s individual elements. Petra
has significant roles in the novel because Viramontes has created Petra as one of the major characters in her novel.
Viramontes presents Petra as a woman who has to live with the fact that her first husband abandoned her, leaving her to look for backbreaking work in the fruit fields. She has to bring up her five children alone. Fortunately, she then meets Perfecto Flores who becomes her lover, and Perfecto Flores takes her as his wife, so he helps Petra to bring up the five children, but Petra still endures hardships of life as she undergoes her life with Perfecto Flores.
Viramontes uses Petra’s appearance to show terrible work Petra has to endure. “Petra had deep coffee-colored skin and black, kinked hair that she tamed with a short braid.”(7) is a passage as an example of how Viramontes uses Petra’s
appearances to show that Petra has to work hard under the scorching sun in the fruit fields every day which makes her skin black like the color of coffee.
seemed tighter and her belly spilled over the belt of waist lax muscles of open births, her loose ponytail untidy after the laundry.” (61). Like Estrella and Alejo,
Petra wears worn-out dress because her low wage as a migrant farm worker is not enough to buy new dress and she spends her low wage to feed the family.
Petra is thirty-five-year-old (Viramontes, 1996: 117) and she has undergone so much turmoil and has lived under poverty due to her job as a migrant farm worker. Viramontes presents Petra as a daughter of a migrant worker and it can be seen in the following passage, “she remembered her father who worked carrying
sixty pounds of cement, the way he flung the sacks over his hunching shoulders for their daily meal, the weight bending his back like a mangled nail;…(20). Coming from migrant worker family, Viramontes shows Petra has to face hardships, frustration, labor, poverty, and discrimination throughout the novel.
Viramontes also displays Petra’s memories of her past life to show her harsh
and pathetic life. Viramontes often shows her painful memories of being left by her first husband and how hard she has to torment to feed her hungry children by presenting the memories of her past life, for example, the passage below is used by Viramontes to show Petra’s torment to feed her hungry children after being
abandoned by her first husband:
Through the passage above, Viramontes tells and shows how Petra becomes panic after realizing that her first husband leaves the family destitute. Viramontes tells and shows that Petra is so confused due to the fact that after being left by her first husband, she has to faces precarious economic situation.
Viramontes describes her as a mother who loves her children very much. Petra will do anything for her children. Actually, she does not want her children experience what she has undergone so far, but her precarious economic situation makes her feel guilty and distraught due to the fact that her children has to help her working in the fruit fields and it can be seen in the following passage, “She wanted her children to stay innocent and honest, wanted them to be as content as when they first arrived somewhere, but she forced them to be older for their own safety.” (40).
She actually does not want her children to follow her working in the fruit fields because she realizes that they are too young to help her working in the fruit fields.
The fact that Petra is a mother who loves her children very much and does anything for her children can also be seen in what Petra does. Petra has to cheat in order to feed her hungry children as shown in the following passage, “The scale
predicted what she would be able to eat, the measurement of her work and the thought that she had to cheat for food made her resentful of any scale, including this one.” (136-137).
saying, “Don’t run scared. You stay there and look them in the eye. Don’t let them
make you feel you did a crime for picking the vegetables they’ll be eating at dinner.
If they try to pull you into the green vans, you tell them the birth certificates are under the feet of Jesus, just tell them.” (63). In this way, Viramontes wants to
indicate that Petra is a brave mother in facing discrimination.
It is her motherhood which leads her to insist to nurse Alejo who is critically ill (Viramontes, 1996: 95-98). In her conversation with Perfecto Flores about whether they have to allow Alejo who is sick to take in their temporary house or not, Petra says, “If Arnulfo or Ricky or my hija got sick, I would want someone to take care of them, wouldn’t you? (97) although she also realizes that it can worsen
her precarious economic situation, and when everything becomes so complicated she feels that she has no power anymore. She even tends to blame herself in order to find explanation for the burdens she cannot bear as shown in the following passage, “Remembering Perfecto withdrawal, she wondered if he thought she had failed
somehow.” (124 ) and it happens when the family became strained as they have to
both work and take care of Alejo and the fact that Alejo even is progressively sicker after she has done anything to cure Alejo.
Viramontes also depicts her as a religious woman who believes in love of God and often kneels in prayer, making offerings, but in the end of the novel Viramontes shows Petra who loses her faith. Perfecto Flores knows that she is a religious woman so he makes an altar where Petra can put the statue of Jesus and pray, “Three creates in the corner would be good place to set Petra’s altar with
Jesucristo, La Virgen Maria y Jose.” (8), and it is under the statue of Jesus where
faith cannot make her strong and calm anymore after taking Alejo to the hospital as shown in the following passage, “That all she had: papers and sticks and broken
faith and Perfecto, and at this moment all of this seemed as weightless against the massive darkness, as the head she held.” (168), and it happens when she accidentally drops the statue of Jesus, Petra’s statue of Jesus falls over and breaks.
By seeing the three factors of the characterization which has been theorized by Henkle (1977, 88-90), Petra is one of the major character in the novel. Her painful memories with her husband, her memories of her father and her childhood, her turmoil to bring up her children after her husband abandoned her which is told via flashbacks, her struggles to bringing up her children, especially how to feed them well, her relationship with Perfecto, her poverty, and her faith reveal the harsh reality of daily existence of her as a female migrant farm worker. Viramontes depicts Petra’s struggles and actions which give illustration of how a female farm
worker has to face many difficulties and complex problems to survive. Viramontes creates Petra whose complexity and intensity of her harsh life which occupy much of attention of the novel to determine her stature as a major character.
4. Perfecto Flores
Perfecto Flores is one of the major characters in Viramontes’ novel and Perfecto Flores has projective roles in which the significance of human experiences in the novel is always almost inherent in the character. As a character, Perfecto Flores has human qualities which the character embodies.
Perfecto Flores is an age man in the following passage, “Perfecto Flores who was
thirty-seven years older than Petra,…” (8) and Viramontes displays how Perfecto Flores has to face many horrible situations with Petra and his stepchildren because of poverty throughout the novel.
Viramontes also describes Perfecto Flores’ old age and poverty through his appearance and dress. “A wiry man emerged from the station wagon, his creased
and baggy trousers hiked above his waist. There was a slick wax shine to the cap of baldness on the thin man’s head. He palmed his sparse silver hair” (5), is an
example of how Viramontes presents Perfecto Flores’s old age and poverty. By
giving description that Perfecto has sparse silver hair, Viramontes gives a clue that Perfecto is an old man. By telling that Perfecto Flores’s trousers are creased and
baggy, Viramontes wants to indicate that Perfecto Flores is poor from his dress. Moreover, Viramontes indicates Perfecto’s poverty by telling that his body is wiry
which shows that Perfecto is poor. His appearance, that he is wiry, indicates that he is not well fed because of his poverty. There are a number like the passage above which Viramontes uses to show his old age and poverty.
By concentrating on the name of the character in analyzing a character (Gill, 1995: 143), how Viramontes describes human quality that Perfecto Flores embodies can also be seen. Perfecto Flores has endured hardships during his lifetime as a migrant worker. The name of the character which Viramontes has given to the character, Perfecto, is ironic. Although others call him Perfecto, his life is far from perfect (life) and his pathetic life can be seen in the passage below.
only surfaced in nightmare. No one remembered knowing him before his arrival, but everyone used his name to describe a job well done. (25).
Viramontes often describes Perfecto Flores’ pathetic life by displaying his past life. In the passage below, Viramontes shows Perfecto Flores’ pathetic
experience, “Perfecto lived a travesty of laws. He knew nothing of their source but
it seemed his very existence contradicted the laws of others, so that everything he did like eat and sleep and work and love was prohibited.”(83). Viramontes also
often tells and shows Perfecto Flores’ past life, his pathetic experiences with a
woman named Marcedes and their first-born baby which was dead. The passage below is an example of how Viramontes tells and show his past life experience with Marcedes and their baby.
…Even years later, while Marcedes’ cancer burrowed into her chest, Perfecto would take the blanket out of the basket, and press the cloth to his nose. Each time a child grew and left, he inhaled, and when Marcedes died that crazy night centuries ago, the scent of pure cloves fired the memory of such a short life into his nostrils and rushed to his lungs, flashing his heart till it pumped so fast it made his head spin and his eyes water endlessly. No one believed him, but he swore year after year he could still smell the living scent of their first-born baby. (81).
From Perfecto Flores’ actions, Viramontes depicts Perfecto Flores as a man
who cannot make others to do what he asks for. Estrella’s refuse to help him to tear down the old barn for extra money (Viramontes, 1996: 72-76) and Petra’s action, insisting to nurse Alejo although Perfecto has reminded her to leave Alejo behind like other migrant farm workers (Viramontes, 1996: 95-98) are the examples that he cannot make others to do what he asks for. Even he always does what others ask for as stated in Estrella’s thought about him, “ Estrella thought, people just use you
until you’re all used up, then rip you into pieces when they’re finished using you?”
Viramontes also presents Perfecto as a hard worker who always thinks about how to get more money in order to return to his native Mexico. It can be seen in his action, insisting Estrella to help him to tear down the old barn for extra money (Viramontes, 1996: 72-76). Perfecto spends most his time by working and he always try to take extra job for extra money to go home.
Viramontes depicts Perfecto Flores as an old man who feels the urge to just do what Petra’s first husband did, leaving the family in order to returning home, toward the end of the novel during particularly difficult periods. “The desire to
return home was now a tumor lodged under the muscle of Perfecto’s heart and
getting larger with every passing day.”(82-83), is a passage as an example of how Viramontes describes Perfecto Flores’ longing to return home. Although his desire
to return home is so overwhelming, he surrenders his dream of returning to his native Mexico so that the family can survive and Alejo can be taken to the hospital.
After taking Alejo to the hospital, Perfecto Flores becomes hopeless and distressed as his desire to return home is so overwhelming. What Estrella did in the medical clinic, smashing up the nurse of the medical clinic, makes him so distraught over the fear that they may be picked up by the police as shown in his thought, “If,
in fact she had called the authorities, they would’ve been hauled off to the police
station by now. Of course. Of course.” (162). In this way, Viramontes shows that as
a old migrant farm worker, Perfecto still has to face many problems besides having to work hard to survive.
life is used by Viramontes to show how he has lost his faith in everything, he has no confident in himself and loses his faith in God. It shows that he is giving up.
What was happening to his instinct? If he were sinking into quicksand, would he not want to save himself? If there was an arrow shot into his belly, would he not think to pull it out? Why had God given him these instincts if they were not intended to be used? Lord, he thought, how tired he was. He wanted to rest, to lay down and never get up, and he pressed his hands to his face. (161)
As Henkle has theorized about major character (1977, 88-90), the depiction of Perfecto Flores by Viramontes gives him a stature of a major character. His longing to return to his native Mexico, his pathetic life and hardships he has to face as a migrant worker, his relationship with Petra and his stepchildren, his pathetic experiences with Marcedes and their baby, and his turmoil in difficult period with Petra and his stepchildren show his complexity and intensity as a major character. Viramontes makes Perfecto Flores frequently appears throughout the novel which ensnares much attention of the novel.
