Short Story Analysis - "Trespass"

Short Story Analysis - "Trespass" Name Course number Instructor’s name Date The story begins as the Garcia’s are gathered to celebrate their one-year stay in America. They have a cake and each member of the family makes a wish, as it is common in the American culture to do so. Evidently, Carla has a difficult time adjusting and she voices her prayer and wish to go back home to the country where they emigrated from (Alvarez 56). Carla has limited understanding of the English language as it is indicated by the fact that she did not understand a warning against trespass in a fenced farmland. She related the word with ‘trespasses’ in the Lord’s Prayer until her mother explained that some words have more than one meaning. Carla rides by bus to a different Catholic school from the one that her siblings attend. She goes to school by herself and she begins to encounter racist intimidation from some boys in her school. They hurl insults at her, tease her and tell her to go back to the country of her origin. As she gets to the puberty stage, they also encroach on her sexuality teasing her about her breasts and hair on her legs (Alvarez 58). Clara also encounters a perverted exhibitionist that is a probable child predator on her way home from school. Her mother alerts the police and she experiences language difficulties in recounting the incident to the police. The police are clearly unimpressed by the language barrier that limits Clara’s account of her encounter. Following this, her mother starts to accompany Clara to and from school and the boys that had been bullying her retreat. However, the memories of the bullying experiences are deeply rooted and haunt her in her dreams (Alvarez 61-64). The narrator of the story is an outsider and does not play a role in the story. The story unravels in a setting away from the city in a neighborhood on Long Island where the family has a playing yard. Houses in the area are neat with lush grass and short trees, which contrasts the homes in their country of origin. Three of the children attend a Catholic school that is a few blocks away from their home while Clara the oldest attends one miles away and has to walk a few miles and ride on a bus every day. The setting evokes different feelings for the different characters. Mami and Papi feel well adjusted to the new environment and are satisfied that their children can have an opportunity to play in the yards in their new rented home in a safe country. They are eager to have their children learn in some of the best Catholic schools where they can learn Godly principles. They are also hopeful about their newly found life in a country away from the predominantly Spanish-speaking people (Alvarez 56). Clara feels uncomfortable with the new life particularly because she struggles with the English language. She is also frustrated by the boys that tease and intimidate her and even when they stopped picking on her, the memories torment her in her dreams. She longs to go back to the country where she can feel genuine love and communicate in a language that she is comfortable with. It is an atmosphere of mixed feelings for the parents and their children. There is also an atmosphere of fear in the sense that all Mami, Papi and Clara fear the police because of their perception that police presence means trouble for their family. This is because they had narrowly escaped the police that had been trailing them in their country just before they got to the US. Clara’s fear is also displayed by the fact that she associates one of the policemen in their house with the boys that had been harassing her at school increasing her fear of the police (Alvarez 62). The story is told in a chronological reverse order. It starts with a story about the celebration of their one year since leaving their country and then recounts several events that occurred in the past. It recounts of how Clara encountered a suspected child molester in her first month of going to the Sacred Heart School among other events that transpired in the past. The story displays the Gracia’s as trespassers in a foreign country. It shows how they viewed themselves as outsiders. Clara’s mother brightens and lets the policemen into her home when she realizes that they consider her family worthy of protection accorded to citizens (Alvarez 61). She felt privileged and accepted because they were only legal residents indicating that she had an inward yearning for acceptance. Clara also yearns for acceptance and her frustrations are evident when she yearns to go back to her country (Alvarez 64). The narrator is reliable because she m...