Discrimination In It's That It Hurts By Tomás Rivera

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It’s That It Hurts is a powerful and meaningful short story written by Tomás Rivera that revolves around the theme of discrimination. The short story is about a Mexican boy who is afraid to tell his parents that the principal expels him from school for fighting. Then, the boy cannot become what he dreams of being. The boy, whose actual name is not mentioned in the story, finds that discrimination hurts. Society discriminate the boy because he is different, and that affects the boy deeply. The boy dreams of becoming a telephone operator, but he needs to finish school for that. “What hurt me the most is that now I won’t be able to be a telephone operator like Dad wants me to. You need to finish school for that.” (line 186) Since the boy is kicked out of school, he can no longer fulfill his dreams. “No, I guess not, they could care less if I expel him… They need him in the fields.” (line 136) The principal believed that all Mexicans are needed to work in the fields and did not even consider whether the boy had …show more content…

“I had just walked in, and they put me in with nurse all dressed in white. And they made me take off my clothes and they examined my behind.” (line 43) The description about nurse dressed in white shows that the nurse is clean and is not dirty like the Mexican boy. The “clean” nurse is being compared to a “dirty” Mexican boy even though the readers do not even know if the nurse is clean or not. People just think the nurse is clean because the nurse is dressed in white. Not only does “But no, you even need a license to fish and then they don’t even sell us one ‘cause we’re from out of states.” (line 167) Because the boy’s family is not from the state and are migrant farmers, they do not have a license to fish. This is symbolizing that if someone is not the same as a group of people, then they cannot be treated

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