Throughout Enrique’s journey to be reunited with his mother, he tells of the horrors of riding the trains. He tells of brutal gangs, starvation, and the fear of being sent back to the beginning, and having to start the dangerous journey over from the beginning. There is, however, a moment in the story, when Enrique is hiding from the police in a cemetery that he describes something beautiful. When Enrique observes the cemetery from his hiding place he thinks, “The cemetery is beautiful. The moon is yellow. The sky is midnight blue. Enrique can see stars around the ceiba trees shrouding the headstones. Crosses, entire crypts, are painted periwinkle, neon green, purple. Wind touches the tree branches, and they murmur in the gathering light. A bigger gust moves the vast limbs, and the sound builds slowly until the wind commands the branches to dance and the leaves to titter. The burial ground greets the sum with a symphony.” (Nazario, 63) In this passage, when describing nature, I feel like Enrique slows from the hectic journey and is at peace for a moment. I found this passage about the cemetery beautiful, because it was able to maintain some of its beauty even as awful things happen in and around the cemetery every day. Unfortunately, directly after describing the graveyard Enrique goes on to say, “Police radios crackle. Enrique peeks over the edge of the mausoleum. The graveyard might be beautiful, but it is filled with peril.” (63) The horrors of the trains had managed to snake their way into this beautiful place, making it slightly less beautiful.
The graveyard Enrique hides in was once beautiful and safe but became less beautiful when the terrors of The Beast found their way into it. Have you ever been somewhere that must have once been beautiful but has had its beauty tampered with by something corrupt or monstrous, like The Beast?
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