The Squatter And The Don Analysis

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Critical review of The Squatter and the Don
The Squatter and the Don was written by María Ruiz de Burton, with the pen name of C.Loyal. Ruiz de Burton was an Mexican-American writer born in 1832, in Baja California. As a writer, María Ruiz de Burton was the first author who write in English. During her writing career, there are few works, of which, The Squatter and the Don is the most famous and the most influential literary piece. As what has been mentioned at the beginning, The Squatter and the Don was published under the pen name of C.Loyal, which was an abbreviation of “Citizen who is Loyal”, and which stands for the political appeal that María Ruiz de Burton advocated toward local government in the nineteenth century. By using this name, …show more content…

In February 2, 1848, the final armistice treaty Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, through which the United States government got the access to entire area of California, Nevada, Utah plus some territory in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. As a compensation, the United States government paid 18.25 million dollars to Mexico.( Pecquet, Gary M., and C. F. Thies. 2010) However, apart from the death of people, Mexico lost half of its territory in this war, which initiate Mexican’s hostile towards American. In addition, after the Mexican-American war, there was an absence of national sense in Mexican, which had a negative effect on the unity and development of the country.
The book The Squatter and the Don was written under such a political and social background, therefore, this book is considered as one that carries political colors and that is similar to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Actually, through reading The Squatter and the Don, it is not difficult to find out that Ruiz de Burton was trying to challenge the social borderlines of her time and place through her application of political illumination and her integration of historical …show more content…

After Mexican’s sign of Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty, there has been plenty of complains in the Don Alamars family, worrying that their legal rights would be questioned by the U.S. government. As far as l am concerned, the role that Don Alamars was portrayed was a traditional Mexican man who was stick to feudal orders and the conventions of Mexicans. In The Squatter and the Don, the love story between Mercedes and Clarence can be regarded as the main story pattern that intrigued the interest of the readers. Ruiz de Burton portrayed Clarence as a brave and reasonable young man who posed different attitude towards native California resident (the Mexicans), and who fall in love with daughter of the Darrells. From this regard, Clarence can be regarded as a knight who fight for the integration of Mexican-American culture and the tense relationship between the two groups. Mercedes is another important character in this novel, who shouted out voice towards stereotypes and prejudices. As the description of the scene when Clarence first met with Mercedes, she was a shy girl and afraid of intruding the rules and traditional regulations. However, her final decision of getting married with Clarence can also be considered as a breakthrough to the rigid conventions represented by her father and her

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