Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Abandonment
Although Lourdes left Honduras for the best interest of her family, when she did not make money or find success in America, she ended up harming more than she helped. It was reasonable for her to go to America, and try to make enough money to send for her children after only a few years. However, Lourdes never sends for them and her absence mentally scars both Enrique and Belky, who grow up without a mother, knowing that she left them. When Enrique reaches Nuevo Laredo, a town just south of the border with the United States, Enrique begins to question if what his mother did was right or wrong. "Enrique wonders: What does my mother look like now?... 'It's okay for a mother to leave,' he tells a friend,' but just for two or four years, not longer.' He recalls her promises to return for Christmas and how she never did. He recalls how he longed to have his mother with him...(157)" The eleven years that Lourdes was separated from Enrique for, have changed him. He is no longer the little boy who clung to his mother. He now knows that she abandoned him. He now knows that she tried to find success in the United States, and when she didn't, she failed to return to him and Belky. She stayed away and robbed the two of them of a mother for their childhood. Both believe that they would have rather had their mother there with them than any amount of money she could send in the mail.
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Despite the fact that ever since his mother left when he was only a young boy his sole ambition has been to be reunited with her, when he finally does make it to her he realizes that his fairy tale ending isn't such a realistic outcome after all. At first the relief of finally finding his mother and getting to actually spend time with her for the first time in eleven years makes them extremely close and joyful to be reunited, but as time passes they realize that they have become strangers to each other. Enrique becomes more and more spiteful of his mothers actions when she abandoned him that they begin to clash and drive each other crazy. "He tells Lourdes she didn't care enough about her children to stay with them in Honduras. Did she think sending money could substitute for having his mother at his side? Or quell the loneliness he felt being moved from one relative to the next? "money doesn't solve anything," he tells her" (pg 197).
ReplyDeleteLourdes leaving was a difficult decision for her to make. She knew her family needed help and she thought leaving was the best solution. However, she didn't expect the extreme amount of pain and abandonment that her children would feel because of it, especially Enrique. She thought she was doing good, but ended up fueling Enrique's depression and rising drug problem. Even with all of his anger pent up inside him Enrique wants nothing more than to be with his mother. The author states earlier in the book that, "Many, including Enrique, begin to idealize their mothers. In their absence, these mothers become larger than life." However, when Enrique finally gets to be with his mother it isn't at all what he imagined. In chapter six, Enrique accuses Lourdes of loving Belky more than she loved him, because Belky got a good home while he was left with an irresponsible father.
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