Blog Post 6 – Rivera

After reading the many short stories in Rivera’s “…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him”, it can be said that Rivera succeeds in portraying the suffering, strength, and beauty of the migrant workers in his novel.The theme of suffering is especially shown in “The Night Before Christmas” short story. Throughout the novel, a common reoccurrence is tragic events such as death and fires destroying both lives and people’s homes. In this short story rather, the suffering felt by the migrant family comes within the family unit itself, rather than an outside force. In this story, a mother decides to buy toys for her children on Christmas because they have never received toys before. In order to make this happen, the mother must face her fear by going downtown and being confronted by large groups of people. The story hints that she experiences what seem to be panic attacks or nervous breakdowns. At the store, the mother became so overwhelmed in the store, she walked out without paying for the toys. “Here she is…these damn people, always stealing something, stealing.” (Rivera, Page 133) She was quickly caught and physically thrown on the ground by a security guard whom was later informed of the true situation. The mother experienced this physical trauma because not only was she mentally disconnected from the situation but also culturally disengaged because of the immediate assumption made my the security guard.

Internal suffering was experienced by the children because of the situation with their mother and downtown. When the mother was explaining to the father what had happened, they both discussed how to tell the children they would not be receiving toys for Christmas. The father even made the acknowledgment that it was better to give the children false hope for toys than no toys at all. Little did these caring parents know, their children were listening to their conversation. Not knowing what to think of it, they went on and waited for their gifts anyway. “When that day came and went with no arrival of gifts, they didn’t ask for explanations.” (Rivera, Page 134) This was a display of suffering felt by the children because it signified their loss of innocence and possibly one of the days they most look forward to in their childhood. Rivera uses this quote as the last sentence of the story in order for the audience to truly sympathize with the children’s position. Rivera appeals to emotion when trying to get his message across in this story. He effectively does so, by creating such a devastating outcome from such a simple task as going to the store and buying toys. Rivera truly allows his audience to realize the difference in quality of life these people experienced.

13 thoughts on “Blog Post 6 – Rivera”

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