Review of and the Shadows Took Him

I really enjoyed reading Chacon’s novel. The character’s descriptions were very detailed and it was easy to picture the scenes and the people in my mind. I believe that Chacon’s novel has a lot of truth within it. We do not realize that there are actually many families such as the Molina family until we read his novel. As I read and the Shadows took him, I could identify the characters with real people even in my own life. It made me wonder how real those characters were and if Chacon was inspired by real experiences. The unfolding of the story took me deeply inside each character’s thoughts and I tried to figure out what might have been the underlying motivations that lead William to be the way he was and to affect the members of his family in such a painful way. Why did Rachel take so long to realize that William was never going to change? Like many women in real life, she was afraid to leave him without any financial support. She tolerated many years of an unhappy marriage because she thought about her children and did not want them to face even harder circumstances. Rachel feared that Joey would become his father and that perhaps William had become his father, creating a vicious cycle.
There are many people in the world similar to William, not only poor people, but also anyone who may have been hurt in such a cruel and profound way in the past. People like William do not know how to express their frustration, and thus use violence to express their feelings regardless of how it will affect others. William’s behavior had a major impact on his family and affected their personalities. Because he did not have any opportunity to be what he really wanted, he belittled his children and did not see any potential in them. I think that Chacon’s novel was a good example of how the lack of opportunity influences minority families to have a different perspective of the world. Joey knew that he could be a good person and have a good future, but he was neither motivated by his family nor by society, which underestimated him. He pretended to be someone he was not just to get attention from others. He wanted to be special and noticed, which he did not feel around his family. He was afraid of his future and feared that he would be worthless. I am sure there are many children who feel the same way as Joey felt growing up, without much perspective of the future. Chacon’s novel is not just a story about a Mexican family that moved to Oregon, but it is a reflection of what actually happens to some minority groups as they attempt to assimilate into the white world. It shows us a reality that we pretend not to see until it affects us.
I believe that being raised in a dysfunctional family can affect what a person becomes, however, you can make different choices from those your parents made thus stopping a vicious cycle found in so many dysfunctional households.