Tuesday Siesta
Dametrius Bedgood
Prof Bustos
Eng 116
24 October 2008
“Tuesday Siesta: Morality”
Being a good mother is the ability to conduct the child from the place of uncertainty, insecurity and not knowing, to the inside of the enclosure where all is safe and understandable. Good mothers protect and provide for their family all costs. Though sometimes, that’s untrue. Sometimes a child might feel the need to help his impoverished mother out by any means necessary. Though their intentions are good, the public perceives their action as criminal. In the story “Tuesday Siesta” by author “Gabríel Garcia Márquez”, such a situation exists. A mother raised her son to the best of her ability and tried to keep him out of trouble. The town views her as a poor, self-independent mother who has raised her son into a life of crime.
Conformation to poverty is glaringly evident as the mother seeks honorable burial rites for her son and is described as wearing "severe and poor mourning clothes", while "she bore the conscientious serenity of someone accustomed to poverty" (106). Her daughter also kept taking off her shoes, because she seemed unaccustomed to wearing shoes due to their poverty. There also seems to be a strict regime of defining lines between the classes, as there is an established "third class car" (105) on the trains. Being on the train, and simultaneously in that state of poverty, it is indicative of an eternally sad, depressing and monotonous ride through life, which is inescapable. Inescapable also, because despite where they venture, the still fall victim to their poverty, which has become so encompassing, that even the sun is described as being "oppressive" (106), taking into consideration its sheer power, size and influence on the sustenance of life.
The town where Carlos Centeno Ayala, the alleged thief, is killed is also significant of the class barriers that have been imposed to create a rigorous and exclusive social caste. The town resonates of privacy, and is
Prof Bustos
Eng 116
24 October 2008
“Tuesday Siesta: Morality”
Being a good mother is the ability to conduct the child from the place of uncertainty, insecurity and not knowing, to the inside of the enclosure where all is safe and understandable. Good mothers protect and provide for their family all costs. Though sometimes, that’s untrue. Sometimes a child might feel the need to help his impoverished mother out by any means necessary. Though their intentions are good, the public perceives their action as criminal. In the story “Tuesday Siesta” by author “Gabríel Garcia Márquez”, such a situation exists. A mother raised her son to the best of her ability and tried to keep him out of trouble. The town views her as a poor, self-independent mother who has raised her son into a life of crime.
Conformation to poverty is glaringly evident as the mother seeks honorable burial rites for her son and is described as wearing "severe and poor mourning clothes", while "she bore the conscientious serenity of someone accustomed to poverty" (106). Her daughter also kept taking off her shoes, because she seemed unaccustomed to wearing shoes due to their poverty. There also seems to be a strict regime of defining lines between the classes, as there is an established "third class car" (105) on the trains. Being on the train, and simultaneously in that state of poverty, it is indicative of an eternally sad, depressing and monotonous ride through life, which is inescapable. Inescapable also, because despite where they venture, the still fall victim to their poverty, which has become so encompassing, that even the sun is described as being "oppressive" (106), taking into consideration its sheer power, size and influence on the sustenance of life.
The town where Carlos Centeno Ayala, the alleged thief, is killed is also significant of the class barriers that have been imposed to create a rigorous and exclusive social caste. The town resonates of privacy, and is
Cited: Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. "Tuesday Siesta". Collected Stories. United States: HarperCollins Publishers, 1984 Bisnath, Anthony. “Internalized 3rd World Oppression” English 1050: 22.03.02>http://www00.homepage.villanova.edu/anthony.bisnath/marquez.htm