The last third of the book just continues to be depressing. I was looking forward to this happy ending where Enrique reunites with his mother. Yet once he gets there its just a recap about his whole journey and more recap about the book and everyone's reactions. "The relationship between Enrique and his mother, including the resentment of immigration children at having been left behind....." (291-292). Just goes back to talking about the resentment that he once felt. of course he is better off now but it wasn't the exciting conclusion that I was looking for. We follow him through this journey of pain watching all of these horrible things happen: people getting thrown under trains, beaten by gangs, OD on drugs, huffing glue etc. All these things that we watched Enrique go through there needs to be a brighter ending. I guess it is meant to be a sad story but the recap of these dull images is horrible. " The Drowning In the river from Enrique and other migrants, including three at the Parroquia de San Jose. the Migrants said they had watched a youngster named Ricki Drown in a whirlpool two nights before." ( 290). These images that we watched Enrique go through was rough enough but i was disappointed with the recap of dull images I was expecting it to brighten up more than it did. Instead I was greeted with a bland ending.
Jack,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I in fact was left with a feeling of wanting there to be something more, and as if it just trailed off. It felt to me that the the author just got bored and finished the book without giving it a real definitive ending. I think what really did it for me was how she ended the story just Maria Isabel was about to make an attempt for America. I wanted to know, what happens next? Did Maria Isabel get to America safely? Did they get Jasmin to come over later? Or did they return to Honduras? Then I read further, and after an entire chapter of statistics, I finally found a bit more of a definitive ending in the epilogue, but still leaving us wondering about Jasmin. "Jasmin, left with Enrique's sister Belky, asks, "Auntie, is my mommy coming back?"...Belky tells Jasmin no, but that her parents hope to have her with them in the United States someday." (p 262) And this is the last we hear of Jasmin, left behind in Honduras with Enrique's sister.
I agree that the ending of the book was less than satisfying. I was ready for Maria Isabel and Jasmin to cross into America and live a long and happy life with Enrique. But then again the ending left a hole for another possible book that maybe the author was trying to encourage the reader to get ready and excited for. I believe the author was continuing to describe the difficutlties that immigrants have by not ending te book happily. For example, in the last third of the book Enirique and his mother weren't getting along becasue Lourde expected more respect from him and he expected more from living in America and finally being out of Hondurus. Sonia Nazario explains that many immigrants feel dissapointed when they finally arrive in America. But I do wish that the author would have given us a little slack and given us a happy ending, it was more than frustrating in my perspective.
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