Review of Parrot in the Oven Essay

echo in the Oven Mi Vida is a coming of age novel compose in 1996, by Victor Martinez. The taradiddle is set in calcium and is told from the point-of-view of a fourteen year old, Mexican American boy. Manuel Hernandez, like many an(prenominal) young men, struggles with identity. Mannys life chronicle is hard. He has two older siblings and a baby sister. His return does non work. His father is unemployed and an alcoholic. The main provider and only person in his house that can keep a steady job is his older sister. His older brother cannot hold a job long. As would be expected, Mannys family lives in the projects.Project life brings its own problems. The Garcia boys live in Mannys neighborhood. They constantly terrorize and retick him. Manny does not fight back. He realizes that he is outnumbered and too afraid to do anything. This could be one of the reasons Manny joins a boxing club in school, and afterward joins a gang. Family life is not much better for Manny. Th scratch yout the story Manny deals with an alcoholic father and a borderline obsessive compulsive mother that have both become bitter and balky. Mannys brother is seldom home, nevertheless when he is he is often drunk. His older sister is resentful that she must carry the family.At one point in the story she gets pregnant and soon loses the baby. Chapter nine shines light on a draw aspect of Mannys character. As the title implies, Manny is naive. He lives in a predominantly Latino community where racial discrimination is non-existent. In this portion of the halt, Mannys boss urges his daughter to invite Manny to her birthday party. She reluctantly agrees. Manny tells his brother, Nardo, approximately the party. Nardo and their sister try to explain to Manny that white people do not usually interact with Mexicans socially he is most probably being used.Manny does not listen. He is in lust. Needless to say, the party ends badly. A terrible home life, hormones and identity issues lead M anny to gangs. He takes the beating, as a form of initiation, so that he can kiss a girl. He is not entirely sold on the gang culture but feels that he should hang out with the members. On his first run with Eddie, a gang member, he witnesses Eddie assault a woman and steal her purse. At that moment he recognizes that Eddie is the guy that knocked up his sister. Frozen in place, Manny realizes that gang-life is not for him.He goes home and watches his sisters sleep, knowing that although life at home is rough there is nowhere else he would rather be. Parrot in the Oven Mi Vida exposes many aspects familiar to first- and second-generation Mexican American families. Many young minorities efficacy be able to relate to Mannys struggles. Even though the book deals with ugly issues like abuse, alcoholism, racism, teen pregnancy and gangs, the book also provides a space for discussion around identity, self-esteem and pride. I would definitely exhort this book to students.