Comparing Pascal's Mother In Deborah Ellis 'Lunch With Lenin'

People could be very similar to how they act, but their childhood and the way they were raised have great impacts on who they become as a person as they grow older. On Deborah Ellis’ novel “Lunch With Lenin”, she wrote about two antagonists that were both static characters. Pascal’s mother from the story “Cactus People” and Emilio from the story “Dancing With Beads¨. Pascal’s mother is a very dependent woman with an exceeding amount of self-admiration. She teaches Pascal, the main character of the story, to stay away from the people who are less fortunate, which tells a lot about what type of mother she is. Similarly, Emilio is a person that also thinks highly of himself. He is the owner of Manila’s biggest shabu business, and

They think so highly of themselves to the point where they almost forget that people that are in a lower class than them are human. “All those homeless people will see how sharp you look, and they’ll pull up their socks and quit being such a fungus on Bolivian society. Like these people- look at them! Animals” (Ellis 152)! Pascal’s mom referred to the cleferos as animals and fungi, which proves that she does not think about them as humans anymore. Instead of donating her money to the cleferos, she wastes her money on unnecessary things that only benefit herself and her family such as doing her nails weekly with her daughter and having maids clean up after their messes. Emilio is also very conceited for not ever thinking about Ramon or taking his feelings into consideration. “ ‘Just remember your priorities’ Emilio said. ‘You are my employee first, your mother’s son second. Now, go” (Ellis 87). He tells Ramon not to go through the front doors, and he even talks to Ramon as if he owns him. This shows that Emilio doesn’t even really think of Ramon’s feelings, because if he did then he would have let him go through the front doors, or go home early to his mom without asking like most people would do for

“There’s no point in sending you to an expensive cathedral school if we don't follow the program. You fooled around; you created that mess for the caretaker; so you do the detention. And stop kicking the seat” (Ellis 151)! She relies on the church to fix her son and his mistakes instead of disciplining him on her own like a real mother. She is dependant on the maids to do everything for her and her family but most importantly, she relies on the opinion of others to have her own. This means that instead of having her own opinion on something by actually learning about it, she lets what other people say decide how she feels. Emilio, on the other hand, wasn’t always rich and went through a hard lifestyle to get to where he is right now.

“The boss worked out of a house in the Multinational Village, a neighborhood protected by a gate and private security guards. It was a part of Manila that was mainly for foreign nationals, mostly Chinese businessmen from Hong Kong but also Americans, British, Japanese and others. The foreign teachers lived in their schools. The diplomats lived in their embassy compounds. Filipinos went to the Multinational Village to clean, cook, cut grass, and look after the foreigners’