TCH 236-What it Means to be Latino/Latina

For this week, the book my group and I had read for this week’s inquiry question, was a book called, The Afterlife, by Gary Soto. This book is a fiction novel, that is most likely geared toward the audience of middle grades 6-8. Published in 2003, this novel is a little older than some other texts that I have read for this class, but the story, themes, messages,and quality of the young adult literature remain very consistent and fresh with the times.

To get my students excited about this book, I would share this quote with them, when presenting the novel in class. The quote reads, ““Dead, with my eyes wide open, I began a new life without a body. I had nothing to fear,” (The Afterlife). I think that this really entices the reader, and gets them to start asking questions, and thinking about what the book could possibly be about. I know, that even when I read this quote now even though I have already read the book, I am just as excited to pick up the book again and start reading it, than I was the first time.

This book is nothing short of absolutely exciting and riveting. The novel follows main character, Jesus, or ‘Chuy” as all of his friends and family call him, and his journey through his search for identity and self discovery, as a ghost. Chuy is murdered while fixing his hair in a club bathroom in Fresno, California. After complimenting a gentleman on his shoes, he is murdered. The story is written from the perspective of Chuy, and how he relates to others now as a ghost. He even falls in love with a very popular girl, Crystal, who also is a ghost as well, who seems to be ‘out of his league’ and now that he is trying to discover what is means to be a ghost, and what is means to build relationships with others now that he is dead, it causes even more dilemmas. Chuy must find out where he fits in society now, and how he identifies, as a person of the dead.

Some of the themes that can be found within this novel, are the themes of searching for identity, and the theme of beauty. In my previous blogs, I have spoken a lot about how the different novels we have read in class during the inquiry portion of the semester, have had prominent themes of searching for identity, and this book is not exception. I think that it is an important aspect of all of the novels I have read for the inquiry portion of this class, and is something to mention when discussing yet another novel that contains the searching for identity theme, and finding one’s self.

In the novel, Chuy is very much just trying to figure out who he is, and how he relates to others, especially now that he is a ghost. Being not the most confident individual in the world, this is really hard for Chuy, and was hard before he was even dead.

Towards the beginning of the novel, Chuy thinks of himself as very ugly, and just a normal individual, and does not see his potential and worth within society. Chuy was very much focused on his outward appearance, and this is something that really carries the theme of beauty throughout this novel. When Chuy falls in love with a very popular, attractive, girl, he is perplexed when this girl, Crystal, who is also a ghost of her former self, tells him that she loves his personality, and that his personality makes him attractive. This is a huge part of the beauty theme within this novel, because the author, Soto, is explaining throughout this book and plot that beauty is not always what is on the outside. Instead, beauty transcends surface level physical appearances, and also includes personality traits, humor, and other internal qualities as well. This is an extremely important theme to be highlighted for young adolescents, because there is so much development that is occuring at this age, and oftentimes, young adolescents can feel insecure with themselves and what they look like on the outside. However, the true beauty is found within someone’s soul and heart, not their physical appearance.

When looking at the literary elements that are used throughout the book, The Afterlife by Gary Soto, we see that there is a use of anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is when human traits, are given to a non-human thing, which in this case, is a ghost. Chuy is able to have feelings, see people who are living, other people that are dead, and there is a mixture of traits between real, human traits, and also traits that are given to him, even though he is a ghost.

A connection that I made throughout this novel, was the connection to the book, The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. In The Lovely Bones main character Susie Salmon is raped and murdered by her neighbor, and continues her existence as a ghost, as she watches over her family, and monitors the events that occur after her death. This is very similar to the happenings in the book, The Afterlife, because both characters within each novel must adjust to their life beyond the living, and discover their place in the world now that they are dead. I believe that both are very emotionally heavy novels to read, however, The Lovely Bones is for a very mature audience, as sexual assault is a very prominent aspect of the events in the book. For more advanced readers, and those who may are advancing to high school sooner than others, I would recommend The Lovely Bones to those students who liked The Afterlife.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. I think that it had really important messages about how sometimes beauty is not just physical appearance, and to me, that is a very important message to share with young adolescents who may be feeling self conscious about themselves. I think this is something very different to a lot of the literature i remember reading as a middle school student, and perhaps the change of pace would be something that other students may find enjoyable. I know I really found the novel to be captivating, and something different that was very exciting, and I am sure that young adolescents would find it interesting as well.

When connecting this book to the overall inquiry question of, what is means to be a latino/latina, I think that in my opinion, that is something that is not as much of a pivotal part to the story, which may help me to answer the question as what I believe to be the answer. Chuy, also known as ‘Jesus’, comes from a latino heritage and background, but a lot of the story focuses on his journey of becoming a person of the dead, and not the living, so perhaps the message that is important here, is that what is means to be a latino/latina, is simply, however you identify yourself as a latino/latina. We are all people with choices to identity and act as we wish, and perhaps this is the message for this week. What it means to be a latino/latina, is whatever that individual who is latino/latina wants it to be about.