Responses for “The Child”, Essay Example

The title is a literal representation, designed to help the reader focus on the character’s place in the story.  The child is death itself, and there is a sense of despair that permeates the story, from the passengers to the two widows traveling to a funeral.  As the reader journeys through the story, the title keeps focus on the boy’s role, which is finally revealed as a sort of explanation for the melancholy tone.

The author, Alberto Rios, is an American who grew up along the Arizona/Mexico border, where the action of the story takes place.  Born to a Guatemalan father and an English mother, Rios lived with the influence of both cultures.

Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. Sandoval are two widows who are traveling to a funeral.  Both ladies have a sense of sadness about them, and they seem to live in a constant state of depression, as if they expect bad things to happen.  They meet a man who is caring for a sleeping, sickly child, who doesn’t speak much and is doing his best to avoid interacting with the ladies.

As they travel to a funeral on a bus, Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. Sandoval meet a man and his child, who he says is very sick and sleeping.  Mrs. Garcia begins to engage the man in conversation, but he is visibly uncomfortable and aloof, doing his best to not talk to the woman and even using one of the bus stops to move to the back of the bus.  When the bus stops for lunch, Mrs. Garcia decides to bring the boy – who is still asleep on the bus – a drink to cool him down.    She discovers that the boy isn’t sleeping, but dead.  A commotion ensues, and the father disappears.  Mrs. Garcia stays to help the police in the investigation as Mrs. Sandoval returns to the bus to complete their journey.  After missing the wake of their departed friend, Mrs. Garcia phones to tell Mrs. Sandoval the truth about the sick boy:  he was actually a corpse that had been hollowed out to carry bags or opium.

The central theme is one of discomfort.  There is a weight on all of the characters, symbolized in the laborious journey that the passengers are taking.  The author is using the story to speak on the weight we carry in life, how loss can be a burden.  However, in this story Mrs. Garcia struggles to connect with the man and his child, which can be viewed as an underlying sense of hope through the sadness.

Rios uses a style that incorporates speech and narration; as characters are described through the eyes of one another, they also respond to them.  This style creates an ease of

storytelling that allows the readers to incorporate themselves into the action.  It reads like our own inner monologues.

The bus route takes the characters through sleepy towns that are rich with life. They travel in mid-day, with the sense of the oppressive heat contributing to the sorrow of the plot.

The story ends with the horrific discovery that the title character is actually a dead boy’s corpse filled with smuggled drugs.

Rios work comes from the Chicano Literary Movement, which peaked in the 1970’s and 80’s with work that celebrated Mexican-American political activism and cultural pride.

References

Rios, Alberto. “The Child.” The Iguana Killer: Twelve Stories of the Heart. Lewiston, ID: Blue Moon and Confluence, 1984. Print.