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Compare or Contrast
the contrast between Ricky and Juana
A Fabricated Mexican by Rick P. Rivera uses Ricky as the main character and does not necessarily introduce many other characters throughout the book. The book outlines the Mexican ethnicity in young adults. Ricky demonstrates that whatever he is going through can never be the “brick wall” on daily living; hence he can always outgrow them provided he makes up his mind to work on them. Ricky is on a mission to self-actualize through the mission is made to look an uphill climbing by the death of his father who committed.
Across a Hundred mountains, the book introduces Juana as a minor who lives in a small village in Mexico; she is described as a wonderful person with lots of merry words that are so soothing. Her family encounters a tragedy that forces her to head to the united states and be separated from her mother. As time passes, she develops into a young adult, with her voice changing momentarily as she tries to search for greener pasture.
Outlining the major contrast between these two protagonists, their genders are at the top; Ricky, as a man, experiences different challenges compared to Juana. How they suffer and survive in the US is totally based on their gender disparities. Ricky is on a journey of self-discovery and search of greener pastures in the United States for himself. His father’s suicide causes him to move from his background to be far away from his ethnicity. On the other hand, Juana is forced to move to the US, searching for greener pastures, not for self-benefit but a means to an end for her family. The death in Ricky’s case was totally out of his control, and he can be declared blameless in his father’s suicide, while the death in Juana’s case is her fault. She feels obligated to move in search of her father to clear her conscience and try to the right her wrongs.
The similarity between Ricky and Juana
Looking at the books that is A Fabricated Mexican and Across a Hundred Mountains are similar in that they both tell of a story that involves characters developing or moving from one stage of life to another. Both Juana and Ricky happen to be the main characters in these two books, which have taken center stage regarding the two novels’ storyline.
Juana and Ricky are similar in that they both seem to move from one location to another; Juana is seen leaving her small village in Mexico immediately after the calamity that befalls her family and alienated her from her siblings, her mother to be precise and headed to united states in search of her father who had left sometimes before. At the same time, Ricky went to America for self-actualization.
Both characters Juana and Ricky, are enslaved to the feeling of guilt and obligation. Juana thinks that if she took her father’s ashes back to her mother, she wouldn’t ever be haunted by her dead father’s demons, and as such, she can comfortably have a peaceful sleep. Similarly, Ricky, on the other hand, clarifies that the mother was powerful, even brought up to him the idea of going to college.
Both characters have lost their fathers and left with only mothers as single caregivers. They also watch the struggles their mothers go through. We are told that Juana was to take back her father’s ashes to the dying mother, similar to Ricky’s mother, who had to go through the pain and psychological torture during his father’s death.
Work Cited
Kawasetsu, Takumi, et al. “Mexican-hat-like response in a flexible tactile sensor using a magnetorheological elastomer.” Sensors 18.2 (2018): 587.