Esperanza Rising Research Paper

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Bad things can happen to good people and your life can get better are some of the greatest themes of Esperanza Rising. For example, in the last sentence of the novel, Esperanza tells Isabel, ”Do not ever be afraid to start over.”(253) This quote was almost the same statement Abuelita told Esperanza while crocheting a blanket, but Esperanza never thought she would turn back to it, until Papa died and sure enough, Esperanza didn’t want to start over. She held on to everything from her magnificent, princess-like life, especially her doll. She didn’t know her life would never be the same again, but after living in California for a while, she looked back at what Abuelita told her and learned to let go of her past, even giving her favorite, special doll from Papa, to Isabel. Papa’s death broke Esperanza to pieces, but when she moved to California she took a turn for the better because she learned a lot of everyday skills, such as sweeping, cleaning clothes, and how to work which benefitted her and she embraced her life and enjoyed everyday. One way in which the theme appears in the book is after Papa dies, instead of everyone helping their family, people target them, specifically Tio Luis. He tried to break Esperanza’s family even …show more content…

While attempting to crochet, Esperanza’s “mountains were all lopsided and her valleys were all bunched up.”(14/15) Abuelita tugged on the yarn, it unraveling, and tells Esperanza, “Do not be afraid to start over.” Even though Esperanza messed up and things weren’t right she had to not be fearful of starting over and redoing it until she gets it right. This exactly relates to the last line because Esperanza got the saying of, “Do not ever be afraid to start over,” from Abuelita but spiced it up to emphasize it. Sometimes bad things will happen but don’t be afraid to start over because things will get

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