Esperanza Rising

Literary Devices

Literary devices are specific techniques that allow a writer to convey a deeper meaning that goes beyond what’s on the page. Literary devices work alongside plot and characters to elevate a story and prompt reflection on life, society, and what it means to be human.

THEMES IN ESPERANZA RISING

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Starting Over

Abuelita’s admonition for Esperanza to not fear starting over introduces the theme early in the story. Abuelita reinforces the theme’s importance as she recounts how she needed to begin again when she was a young girl and her family’s circumstances changed. Esperanza is unable to entirely absorb Abuelita’s meaning when she first listens to this story, but she is soon forced to grasp its importance when tragedy strikes, and she recalls this story as her own new life begins. Abuelita and Miguel introduce the idea of starting over as more than just an escape from a bad current situation, but it takes time for their practical optimism to have an affect on Esperanza.

Over the course of a tumultuous year, Esperanza must learn to start over multiple times. First, she must adapt after the death of her father, when she enters a new social and economic status. She must navigate changed relationships with friends and family members while stepping into new roles and responsibilities as part of an extended family and community. Her focus shifts from her own childish wants to the needs of others as she gains confidence in herself and her abilities. Esperanza matures through caring for others and working in the fields. Starting over and learning something new gradually makes sense and feels right to Esperanza. She becomes comfortable sharing her Abuelita’s wisdom with young Isabel, thereby passing on the knowledge that there is nothing to fear from beginning again.

Family and Community in the Mexican Immigrant Experience

Family, both biological and found, form Esperanza’s support system when she encounters tough circumstances. At the novel’s beginning, Esperanza is an only child and the cherished focus of her loving family, which is surrounded by servants and workers. After her father’s death, Esperanza’s protective circle expands as she becomes a “cousin” to another family group. This time she is not an adored child, but a caretaker and contributor to the greater family welfare. Esperanza has both younger and older role models for this work, through which she quickly learns that family can mean far more than it did before. This new community Esperanza finds herself in is built around mutual emotional, physical, and sometimes financial support.

An emphasis on family and community, however, can have its drawbacks, as Esperanza quickly learns when others in her camp learn her story. She discovers that a possible connection from Aguascalientes knows her family, but only from the perspective of former workers, so this person’s perspective may be skewed. Gossip in immigrant communities not only forms and strengthens bonds, but it can also start dangerous rumors. People in the camps are very much aware of each other’s “business,” as Isabel tells Esperanza, and news of injustice and disparities in workers’ lives travels from one community to another.

The community members are mostly secure in the knowledge that they do not fit the racist stereotype of the uneducated immigrant monolith who is only good for physical labor. Miguel gives the most stirring speech on this subject in Chapter 10 (Los Aguacates), but the attitude is implied throughout most of the story. Esperanza’s new extended family and community allows Esperanza to rise above this troubling feeling, and she finds satisfaction in reciprocating their care for her.

Feminine Wisdom and Strength

Women form the backbone of story of the novel's survival, renewal, compassion, and strength. Maternal figures such as Mama, Abuelita, Hortensia, Josefina, and Ada serve as gentle but firm teachers and voices of wisdom and warmth. They guide the younger generation of girls including Esperanza, Isabel, and even the angry but charismatic Marta. Abuelita in particular is a light to Mama and Esperanza. Her stories and clear-eyed certainty regarding her family’s survival help Mama and Esperanza even as they are denied her physical presence beside them.

Circumstances continually test the strength of the female characters. Mama is a model of calm, fortitude, compassion, and humility, but she eventually succumbs to illness and depression, missing Abuelita desperately and struggling to encourage Esperanza’s own strength. In this weakness, however, she becomes an even more vital role model for Esperanza, prompting a change in her daughter’s focus. Other women surround Esperanza and offer support while her mother is hospitalized, teaching her how to work in the fields and balance homemaking and work; however, Esperanza gains much of her own strength and wisdom through trial and error.

The family becomes complete again when Abuelita finally rejoins Mama and Esperanza at the end of the story. Now, their roles are slightly more equal, each woman young and old able to support the others in new and different ways. The circle expands when Esperanza invites Isabel inside to gain wisdom Esperanza is now able to pass on herself.

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SYMBOLS IN ESPERANZA RISING

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Roses

Roses often symbolize love and peace in literature, and while they do so again in Esperanza Rising, they are also a symbol of home. The Ortega family’s land in Mexico is named El Rancho de las Rosas—the Ranch of Roses—and Papa has planted several rosebushes, including two side-by-side inspired by Esperanza and Miguel. The two rosebushes have grown alongside both young people. Even after most of Esperanza’s home and garden are destroyed, Miguel secretly brings cuttings back from the charred roots to grow their roses again in California. The small shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe and its roses are a reminder of their former lives and a symbol of the hope that they can flourish in their new home. Roses make yet another appearance when Mama returns home from the hospital. These roses, now grown, symbolize Mama’s homecoming to her family.

Abuelita’s Blanket

The blanket Abuelita hands off to Esperanza to finish in California is a symbol of the work that Abuelita knows will come soon. The zigzag patterns Abuelita has taught Esperanza to crochet represent the peaks and valleys of life, while the blanket itself will bring comfort and distraction when both are most needed, especially during Mama’s illness. The pride Esperanza displays as she brings the blanket to Abuelita during their reunion in California is immense, even while she recognizes its lopsided, overlong weight. The blanket represents something beautiful that Esperanza has been able to create, despite her enormous stress and fear, something that ties her past to the present in a practical, protective way.

Hands

Striking descriptions of hands appear throughout the book and symbolize the physical and emotional changes Esperanza and Mama experience in California. Mama’s hands in particular, once soft and elegant, quickly grow rough after hours in the fields. Once she begins to work in the fields as well, Esperanza finds her own hands unrecognizable as they become swollen. She acquires cuts and scars that are beyond help from the avocado lotion Hortensia once made to soften Mama’s hands in Mexico. Esperanza thinks of her mother’s hands while Mama is in the hospital, and Esperanza is drawn to the sight of the typically combative Marta gently holding hands with her mother as they walk together. The touch and feel of women’s hands represent comfort even as their skin hardens and cracks.

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MOTIFS IN ESPERANZA RISING

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Crochet

Women and girls crochet throughout Esperanza Rising. Crocheting is most prominent in the work Abuelita and Esperanza begin on a blanket as the women nervously wait for Papa to come home. The blanket is completed when Abuelita is reunited with Mama and Esperanza at the book’s conclusion. Over the course of many months, tears, strands of hair, memories, and love are woven with yarn into the blanket in zigzag patterns, as uneven and unplanned as the events of Esperanza’s new life. The blanket is a metaphor for Esperanza’s existence as she uses any yarn she can find; she is doing the best she can with the resources she has. In a commonality Esperanza finds comforting, the women of the camp often spend their evenings crocheting, as Mama and Abuelita did in Aguascalientes. During her illness, Mama has Esperanza bring her Abuelita’s blanket, and as she sleeps, Esperanza adds row after row of yarn to the material. She does this as if attempting to create a blanket large and warm enough to protect her family from all trouble. The end of the story finds Abuelita teaching little Isabel to crochet, bringing this craft of love to another generation.

Royalty and Fairytales

Esperanza Rising is a reversed rags-to-riches story. The novel references princesses, queens, and Cinderella, underscoring how elements of Esperanza’s former life seem like a fairytale to other characters. Mama is frequently described as regal in looks and behavior. Miguel calls Esperanza a queen as a gentle, respectful tease until he is forced to remind Esperanza that she can no longer see herself as such in California. Isabel continues to beg Esperanza to tell her stories of her life as a queen or princess in Mexico, while Marta has no patience for Esperanza’s snobbery, calling her a “princess who’s come to be a peasant” and mockingly labels her as “Cinderella.” The reality of her new, lowered position takes a long while for Esperanza to accept.

Mothers and Daughters

The power and bonds of maternal love feature strongly in the story, beginning with Abuelita’s clear influence on her daughter, Ramona (Esperanza’s Mama), and Esperanza herself. Esperanza consistently looks to her own Mama as inspiration and ideal. She deeply understands the need Mama has for her own mother while they are separated. Even the prickly, angry Marta adores her mother, who in turn prays for Esperanza’s mother during Mama’s illness. Esperanza recognizes and understands how Marta desperately needs and fears for her lost mother after a raid by immigration police. This moment creates empathy between Esperanza and her antagonist. Abuelita’s reunion with Mama is a beautiful moment near the end of the story, bringing together Esperanza and the two most important people in her life.

BACKGROUND HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE ERA AND STORY LOCATIONS

Spanish & Mexican Culture Vocabulary:

arroyo

campesinos

de veres

entiendes

fiesta

Mexican Revolution

roses

Our Lady of Guadalupe