Esperanza's mother comes home with boxes of clothes to wear to a party
celebrating her cousin's baptism, which is held at a nearby church basement.
Her mother has forgotten to buy Esperanza shoes to match her dress, so
when she gets to the party she sits self-consciously, trying to hide her
old shoes and refusing to dance, even when a cousin by first communion
or something asks her. Then her uncle tells her how beautiful she is
and drags her onto the dance floor. He teaches her some steps and then
brings her to the middle of the room, where they dance together, everyone
watching, and Esperanza is especially conscious of her cousin who had
asked her to dance, and how proud her mother is to be her mother.
Esperanza's grappling with maturity continues in this chapter, where
she demonstrates that she is able, if pressed, to be confident and graceful
even when she feels self-conscious about something (in this case, her
shoes). She is thrilled by her mother's positive reaction, and made almost
dizzy by the attention of her cousin: all night the boy who is a man
watches me dance. He watched me dance, she says. While the interest of
older men makes her uncomfortable, she seems to thoroughly enjoy that
of her cousin.
Rachel, Lucy, Nenny and Esperanza jump rope, improvising about what
it means to have hips: what they can be used for, where they can take
you, etc. Esperanza, who has been talking to Alicia the university student,
explains that hips make room in women's bodies for babies. Rachel suddenly
begins to rhyme as she jumps, and the other girls follow suit, singing
nonsense, half-rhyming songs about hips. When it's Nenny's turn, she jumps
in and starts singing a standard jump rope song, not listening when Esperanza
tries to explain the game to her.
Another aspect of Esperanza's continuing maturity is revealed here: the changing way in which she relates to Nenny. In earlier chapters, she attributes Nenny's impetuousness or naïveté to her stupidity. Here, she claims, [Nenny] is this way because of her age, and she is in a world we don't belong to anymore. Though she is still disgusted with Nenny's unwillingness to play along with the group, and feels self-conscious in front of her friends, Esperanza seems to have gained some perspective about her sister.
The rhymes the girls sing as they jump evolve effortlessly from their
conversation. Though they may be uncertain about what their future as
women holds--perhaps the reason they sing about hips in the first place--they
combine the mature subject with silly songs easily, and their imaginations
are clearly strong.
Esperanza gets a job to help pay for her Catholic high school, because
her father says only bad children go to public school. She plans to get
a job similar to those her friends have, at a dime store or hot dog stand,
but one day her Aunt Lala tells her she's found her a job at Peter Pan
Photo Finishers. She simply has to match negatives with their photos,
but she feels nervous being around so many adults. Later in the day an
old man comes in and begins his shift, telling her he will be her friend,
and she doesn't feel so uncomfortable anymore. But then he tells her it's
his birthday and asks her for a birthday kiss. When she leans down toward
his cheek, he grabs her face, kisses her on the mouth, and won't let her
go.
If Hips demonstrated Esperanza's ability to confront her nervousness
confidently, supported by her friends, The First Job reminds the reader
that things are not always so easy. At first, she is unable to calm down
at work, even though everyone is friendly to her. Then, when she finally
finds someone she feels comfortable with, he suddenly surprises her by
acting in a frighteningly inappropriate way. Esperanza is still a child,
inexperienced and naïve. One gets the impression that her reaction
to the kiss is one of embarrassment and fear, rather than the anger that
an older woman might feel. It is therefore interesting that Cisneros ends
the chapter with the kiss, choosing not to reveal Esperanza's precise
reaction.
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
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