Christopher Chhay
Mr. Baillargeon
Eng 10 per 6
17 November 2014
The Crystal Symbolizes Perpetua’s Father In the short story “The Gifts of Ratoncito Perez” by Joe Baillargeon is a story about a girl named Perpetua who lives in San Antonio De Areco. As she is out in town she sees her father with another woman, who kisses her father on the cheek. At first Perpetua thinks she is just a person her father is showing around town and on her way home she sees the car her father was driving. She gets closer to the car; in the back window was the woman and her father. She rushes home and later on at the summer solstice meal, she sees her dad with his arms around the woman, finding out that her father was actually cheating. The crystal symbolizes her father as the crystal was bright when she didn’t know he was cheating to the crystal being nothing but darkness when she found out.
The crystal symbolizes Perpetua’s father as in the beginning of the story when she didn’t know that her father was with another woman, the crystal was bright. First, when Perpetua tells the story about her father removing her teeth and waking up to finding the crystal in her hand that her father gave her as a child symbolizes her father. In the story Perpetua quotes “The crystal however remains on my windowsill, where I sometimes watch the colors of the night dance off its many sides.” (3) To me this means that she sees light in her father as she loves and respects him. She loves and respects as for how he nicely pulled her teeth out. Doing this she gained respect for her father, as he was being a real father to her which made everything brighter, hence her seeing the bright colors in the crystal remind her of her father. Also, when she was out in town and when Mrs. Romero throws the bucket out the window. The water that looked to her as “the bucket sparkles in the sun like the crystal on my windowsill, then hits the ground and shutters into spray that dots the hot sidewalk in little bits of gray that quickly evaporate under the summer sun.” (5) This means that Perpetua sees the brighter side of the world, as she has no worries and she doesn't know about her father's secret. As she doesn't know about her father's secret, she still loves her father which is represented through the crystal. The crystal symbolizes Perpetua's father as in the beginning of the story before she found out about her father, the crystal was colorful and bright.
The crystal symbolizes Perpetua's father as when she found out about her father cheating, the crystal