Salvador, Late or Early
“Inside that body too small to contain the hundred balloons of happiness, the single guitar of grief, is a boy like any other disappearing out the door, grows small and smaller to the eye, dissolves into the bright horizon, flutters in the air before disappearing like a memory of kites.” I
believe this quote shows that, in the book “Salvador, Late or Early”, Sandra Cisneros tried to portray Salvador as a lonely, angry child. I
believe Salvador is a very lonely, angry person, because he helps his mother do just about everything, especially with taking care of other children, and on top of that, he’s almost completely alone, and had an abusive family or father.
I
believe that Salvador is a lonely child for many reasons; first and foremost being that he helps his mother with just about everything. In the story it says “Helps his mama, who is busy with the business of the baby,” as well as “shakes the sleepy brothers awake, ties their shoes,” and “is a boy who is no one’s friend,” among others. This leads me to believe he is a lonely child because he basically manages everything for his mother, so she can take care of the baby. He has no time for himself, and has no friends to support him.
This leads me to my next reason; he’s almost completely alone. He has no friends, and nobody notices him. “Salvador whose name the teacher cannot remember, is a boy who is no one’s friend,” this quote implies that he is beneath everyone’s notice, and tells us he is nobodies friend. The quote “inside the throat that must clear itself and apologize each time it speaks,” tells us that he’s underneath everyone so much that he has to apologize whenever he speaks, just to get people to listen to him. As well as this, the quote “Grows small and smaller to the eye, dissolves into the bright horizon, flutters in the air before disappearing like a memory of kites. “ could be a metaphor for his childhood, if read alongside this quote “the single guitar of grief, is a boy like any other disappearing out the door.”
My third reason is that he’s probably had an abusive family or father at some point in his life. The quote “inside that forty-pound body of boy with its geography of scars, its history of hurt,” tells us that he was physically hurt in some way, probably quite badly. It could be taken to mean he was a very angry, aggressive person, or that he had/has an abusive family. I think it’s more likely that he had an abusive father, because if he was aggressive enough that he could have a “geography of scars,” and “history of hurt”, I think people would probably have noticed him.
For these reasons, I
believe that Salvador is a solitary, angry child, who was pushed into the role of the head of the family early in life, cut off from everyone, with no friends or family to support him, and was quite probably beaten as a little boy. I think Salvador is, while being solitary and angry, a very mature child as well. He takes what the world throws at him without complaining, even if it means being alone and under a massive responsibility!