Under the Feet of Jesus Essay

The novel “Under the Feet of Jesus” (1995) written by Helena Maria Viramontes, is the story of a Hispanic family who, through out their whole life living together, have been trying to survive the challenges brought about by poverty, they are one of the people who, at those times, were trained to work like dogs since they were four years old. (Lawton, 1996). The important characters of the story were Estrella and Petra,. Estrella the character in which the story revolves around is a young woman who has just turned fourteen.

Estrella being on her early teen years first experiences the nature of love and its consequences, along with these important things that she goes through in her life she works hard every single day for along period of time as a help to her mother and for them to be able to survive and live. The character of Estrella, shows the typical life of a young person facing the challenges of the real world for the first time.

Her experiences including her relationship with Alejo are the things that made her stronger and made her understand how life works because.

Estrella’s character is more of a representation of the real life situations wherein people need to choose among the most important things in life in order to attain a better status or avoid worsening the present status in life. Petra, the loving mother of Estrella, is a hard working single parent. She works all day despite the scorching heat just to provide something to eat for herself and Estrella. Petra’s character can be interpreted as someone to whom the young that experiences things similar to Estrella can get examples from.

What Petra has experienced in her life including love and the struggle to live can be a model for people who think that they have suffered enough in their lives. Petra’s character showed the value of not giving up and being strong despite the unfortunate things that come in people’s lives.

References:

Lawton, L. (1996). Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes [Electronic Version], 1. Retrieved May 24, 2005 from http://home. cybergrrl. com/review/gb0796. html#Under. Viramontes, H. M. (1995). Under the feet of Jesus. New York: Dutton.