Summary Of Objectives In Enrique And Lourdes

Enrique and Lourdes have different perspectives and objectives in this story. Lourdes feels she has to make a difficult decision of either being with her children and watching them grow up while suffering with poverty, or migrating to America, far from her children, and making a decent amount of money for her children and their future possibly could be brighter than hers. She keeps a long-term and bigger objective in mind, however when she does so, she underestimates the consequences of these actions at that time. Enrique has different objectives in his mind. In many ways, he is shortsighted, yet in a different way from his mother. He makes decisions for very short term rewards, and at many times becomes unable to face the consequences
of his actions. In many instances, this happens because of his inner discontent due to being away from his mother, and he makes bad decisions in his behavior at school and his addiction to drugs. Both of these situations are very difficult to handle, and one can only feel sympathetic to both of them. Lourdes is made to make difficult decisions and has to choose one or the other. This situation is understandably hard, as a mother only wants the best for herself and children and either of them can be a bad choice. She ultimately chooses the very difficult choice of leaving her family and friends and migrating to a foreign place where she must fend for herself, provide for her family back home, and deal with the emotional pain of not seeing her children. In doing so, she is forced to work basically the entire day at times, doing strenuous work for little or no pay. Enrique on the other hand, has to now deal with not having the emotional support of his mom and then being abandoned by his relatives, as well as losing his closest and most loved uncle. All of this takes an emotional and physical toll on one, and it eventually led him to resort to destructive habits.