Monday, June 30, 2014
Abandonment or Love?
When Enrique's mother left for the United States, she did it out of the love and want for her children to have a better future. Then, when his Grandmother sends him away because he won't listen even though she wants the best for him and loves him, the narrator says that "to Enrique, it is another rejection. First his mother, then his father, and now his grandmother" (Nazario 25). He does not understand that people are not leaving him because they do not want him, but rather because they love him and think that leaving him will help him in some way. I have never been left behind or had to leave one of my family members, but I can understand his frustration. Because several of my extended family has passed away, I can feel a very small portion of what Enrique felt. Have you ever felt abandoned or had to leave someone or something you loved out of love/necessity?
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Love through abandonment is an intriguing concept to me, because the latter seems to be the opposite of the former. Enrique's and Lourdes' situation reminds me of a comparatively insignificant part of my own life: being very little and owning a butterfly garden. After watching the butterfly larvae grow and form cocoons in their little habitat, it is eventually necessary to let them go. It's a difficult thing to do, especially for a kindergartner, so I cannot imagine the pain Lourdes must have felt leaving her son behind.
ReplyDeleteI knew a woman who came to the States from Peru to find better work. She cleaned houses and, consequently, watched children when their parents went out. This is how I came to know her: she watched over me occasionally. I was able to hear a couple of her stories. When she returned to Peru, she said her family treated her like a queen. Unlike Enrique's family, they wanted the income that she brought in. Perhaps her sacrifice was one the family was more willing to take. However, the pain of leaving behind family was still there. I feel like I can understand Enrique's situation better because of my personal experience with this woman.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was little, one of my best friends was my next door neighbor, Marie, an elderly woman. I visited her everyday, and because I didn't have any grandparents that lived in Tennessee, she was like a grandmother to me until one day when she passed away. I remember feeling lonely and confused because she was the first person close to me that had passed away. Although it was not in her ability to stay with me, I couldn't help but feel abandoned. Enrique experienced this sense of abandonment as well, but unlike Marie who didn't have a choice to leave, his mother chose to. Even though this makes a significant difference in the situation, I can partially understand the feeling of abandonment that Enrique felt when his mother left him.
ReplyDeleteUntil a year ago, my dad traveled across the country almost every day for his job. He was gone for days at a time, and I would only see him late at night or occasionally on the weekends. When I was younger, I did not understand why he would leave so often. I felt insecure and confused, as Enrique does before he finds his mother. Like Enrique, I did not realize that my dad left me out of love. As I grew older however, I learned why my dad would leave every day. I came to understand that traveling for his job put dinner on my plate and a roof over my head, so this travel was necessary to him. He left me because he loved me, parallel to Lourdes leaving Enrique in order to support him financially. Though it is hard to understand at first, usually one leaves his or her loved ones with good intentions and actions made out of love. Though my life is in now way as difficult as Enrique's, I do somewhat understand his feeling of abandonment.
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