Assignment #6- and the shadows took him
I remember the first day I started reading the book “and the shadows took him”, by Daniel Chacon, I had just left the campus book store and was on my way to discuss some issues with the Dean. I ended up arriving to his office and to my surprise there was a sign posted stating he would be back within the hour, so I decided to sit on the bench and open up the book. Now, you have to keep in mind that I am a Mexican-American myself and the first one in my family to attend college; after being out of high school for almost ten years I finally decided to give my education another go around.
First of all, it was very weird for me to find out that some of my assignments for this English class would be to read this novel about a Hispanic family; I was intrigued and somewhat curious to find out what this book was all about. I thought we would be reading about Shakespeare or a book as big as a Bible on short stories but being able to read this novel was a pleasant surprise. As I sat on the bench and began reading I was consumed by the book and the pages just turned faster and faster. I found myself laughing even at the first line, “Their father never took them to restaurants, because he thought it a waste of money when they could open up a can of beans, sprinkle on Tabasco sauce, stuff their bellies, and it would all shit out the same way anway” (Chacon 3). For me they were more than words but somewhat of an illustration of the father I knew and grew up with. I imagined my Dad giving us the same line telling us to shut our mouths and make some tacos de frijoles if we were hungry because we should know better than to ask to eat out. It might seem strange to some of you but at times it even became too real that I had to put the book down and compose myself.
As I finished each chapter I began to find many different issues throughout the book, of course, the first being William and the amount of power and control he had on his family and the reoccurrences of shadows throughout the novel. Chacon did a great job in illustrating how William was the dark shadow that hovered over the entire Molina family. When we think of darkness we think of the color black and that was William. In the beginning of the book we are told of a young William driving a shiny black car and we are even given a description of the couch that started to evolve into the shape of William’s body. This just proves how powerful he was; even inanimate objects conformed to William’s demands. Then, when he decided to paint the house pink he never even touched the pink paint, after all his fuss about the color he ended up only painting the trims black.
Now, it was obvious that he was tougher on Joey than Billy and I feel this caused Joey to battle within himself to find out truly who he was. At first I thought Joey was struggling with multiple personalities but as the story progressed I got more of an impression of an inner battle that Joey was fighting; trying to figure out which “Joey” would win in the end. Joey found freedom in acting; he was able to be a “King” or anything he wanted to be and could be strong, powerful, and many things that he couldn’t be in real life. He was a product of his upbringing and desired attention and love and was going to find it no matter what.
I enjoyed the fact that Chacon stuck to the desires of the Hispanic people; most Mexicans long to move to the United States, just to live north of the border is an amazing goal and even though the Molina’s lived in Fresno, when it was time to move again it was even further up North to Oregon. The author could have chosen for them to move to Georgia or Florida but he didn’t, I felt this was symbolic to the “American Dream” that most Mexican families long for. It seems like the further North the Molina’s get the bigger and better their lives would be.
When it came time to write my Essay, our book review on the novel, I found myself overwhelmed with information on William. Even though, there were other characters like Rachel, Vero, Billy, and Joey, William just had the biggest impact on me. I mean I understood why Rachel was so submissive and just went along with William’s behavior, how Vero took on the rebellious role in her family, how Billy just always played the middle child, and how Joey fought with his inner demons. No matter what I guess my personal experiences just drew me closer to the character of William.
I truly can say that I enjoyed this novel, immediately after reading it I called my Mom and told her to go buy the book and read it. I already had done my part of giving her a breakdown of the story and we even laughed about how Chacon described “empanadas” and “Cholos”. I was very satisfied with the entire book and wouldn’t change a thing; it allowed me to dip a little more into my culture and brought back many memories and stories when my parents and grandparents had told me about their life growing up in “Califas”. I like the fact that many questions were left unanswered, about what would happen to the Molina’s but that is what life is all about anyways, unanswered questions. I’m glad that we didn’t read Shakespeare or any short stories because this novel did more for me than any other book I have read thus far.
First of all, it was very weird for me to find out that some of my assignments for this English class would be to read this novel about a Hispanic family; I was intrigued and somewhat curious to find out what this book was all about. I thought we would be reading about Shakespeare or a book as big as a Bible on short stories but being able to read this novel was a pleasant surprise. As I sat on the bench and began reading I was consumed by the book and the pages just turned faster and faster. I found myself laughing even at the first line, “Their father never took them to restaurants, because he thought it a waste of money when they could open up a can of beans, sprinkle on Tabasco sauce, stuff their bellies, and it would all shit out the same way anway” (Chacon 3). For me they were more than words but somewhat of an illustration of the father I knew and grew up with. I imagined my Dad giving us the same line telling us to shut our mouths and make some tacos de frijoles if we were hungry because we should know better than to ask to eat out. It might seem strange to some of you but at times it even became too real that I had to put the book down and compose myself.
As I finished each chapter I began to find many different issues throughout the book, of course, the first being William and the amount of power and control he had on his family and the reoccurrences of shadows throughout the novel. Chacon did a great job in illustrating how William was the dark shadow that hovered over the entire Molina family. When we think of darkness we think of the color black and that was William. In the beginning of the book we are told of a young William driving a shiny black car and we are even given a description of the couch that started to evolve into the shape of William’s body. This just proves how powerful he was; even inanimate objects conformed to William’s demands. Then, when he decided to paint the house pink he never even touched the pink paint, after all his fuss about the color he ended up only painting the trims black.
Now, it was obvious that he was tougher on Joey than Billy and I feel this caused Joey to battle within himself to find out truly who he was. At first I thought Joey was struggling with multiple personalities but as the story progressed I got more of an impression of an inner battle that Joey was fighting; trying to figure out which “Joey” would win in the end. Joey found freedom in acting; he was able to be a “King” or anything he wanted to be and could be strong, powerful, and many things that he couldn’t be in real life. He was a product of his upbringing and desired attention and love and was going to find it no matter what.
I enjoyed the fact that Chacon stuck to the desires of the Hispanic people; most Mexicans long to move to the United States, just to live north of the border is an amazing goal and even though the Molina’s lived in Fresno, when it was time to move again it was even further up North to Oregon. The author could have chosen for them to move to Georgia or Florida but he didn’t, I felt this was symbolic to the “American Dream” that most Mexican families long for. It seems like the further North the Molina’s get the bigger and better their lives would be.
When it came time to write my Essay, our book review on the novel, I found myself overwhelmed with information on William. Even though, there were other characters like Rachel, Vero, Billy, and Joey, William just had the biggest impact on me. I mean I understood why Rachel was so submissive and just went along with William’s behavior, how Vero took on the rebellious role in her family, how Billy just always played the middle child, and how Joey fought with his inner demons. No matter what I guess my personal experiences just drew me closer to the character of William.
I truly can say that I enjoyed this novel, immediately after reading it I called my Mom and told her to go buy the book and read it. I already had done my part of giving her a breakdown of the story and we even laughed about how Chacon described “empanadas” and “Cholos”. I was very satisfied with the entire book and wouldn’t change a thing; it allowed me to dip a little more into my culture and brought back many memories and stories when my parents and grandparents had told me about their life growing up in “Califas”. I like the fact that many questions were left unanswered, about what would happen to the Molina’s but that is what life is all about anyways, unanswered questions. I’m glad that we didn’t read Shakespeare or any short stories because this novel did more for me than any other book I have read thus far.
posted by ldz10250 at 10:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home