Esperanza Rising Annotation
ENGL 355 B
September 22, 2014 When Esperanza’s familiar, comfortable, life is threatened; she must rise above her old mentality and make a life change. One of the most effective literary tool used in this book is point of view. In Esperanza Rising, the point of view is from the mind of Esperanza. It is a third-person limited narrator that allows you to hear all of her thoughts while she is adapting to this new lifestyle. As the reader, you are able to hear her thoughts and attitude towards her wealthy lifestyle and then see her mentality change as she matures and grows into a stronger person. This tool is very effective in this book because if the point of view were placed in any other position, the story would change completely. If the story was centered around Miguel or Mama’s thoughts and point of view, we would be able to see the changes in Esperanza, but we would not fully understand her thought process and see the mental maturity that she goes through. This point of view is essential for the book because it helps the book achieve the goal of Esperanza’s life change making her into a better, more grounded, person. The reader is able to see this change more effectively when completely a character arc on her self-sufficiency. She starts with a lifestyle where she did not even know how to sweep, which is almost a zero on the self-sufficient scale. She then learns that skill and moves up to being able to take care of two babies at the same time. Even though she makes one of them sick, she corrects her mistake and learns from it. At the end of the book, she is off working and making a living for herself and her family. She grows tremendously in this book and by creating a character arc, the reader can easily see her grow. Overall, the literary tool of point of view was the most effective in the book Esperanza Rising, and by creating a character arc, you are able to see the changes that she made in her lifestyle to be able to provide for her struggling family.
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