Esperanza Rising By Pam Muunoz Ryan

Esperanza Rising

By: Olivia Meeker

Have you ever read “Esperanza Rising” before?! Well if you haven’t you probably should, anyways, I’m here to tell you about how Esperanza changes in the book and some key things you might want to know. Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan is about A 13 year old girl who is an only child, and is very rich, and lives on a ranch in Mexico that grows grapes. Then, when her father gets killed, everything seems to go downhill after that. She has to move to California so her and her mom can get jobs. At first she had no idea what it felt like being a peasant and didn’t like the thought of it. Until she realizes that being a peasant isn’t that bad, so she gets used to it. Here are the three ways that Esperanza

An example of this is when she expected Hortensia to bathe her. On page 126 it says, Esperanza went over to one of the washtubs, put her hands out at her side and waited. Josefina looked at Hortensia and raised her eyebrows. Isabel said, “Esperanza, what are you doing?” Mama walked over and said softly, “I’ve been thinking that you are old enough to bathe yourself, don’t you think?” Later in the book Esperanza does not expect anyone to do anything for her. She does it all for herself. Esperanza’s character changes later in the book when she could be described as hardworking. An example of this is instead of asking anyone else for money to bring Abuelita back, she got a job and made the money herself. On page 230 it says, “You would not believe your daughter Ramona. She always gets called to work in the sheds, she cooks now, and takes care of the babies as well as their own mother.” So it is clear that since Esperanza’s dad died she has lost everything. At first she was really confused as to why she was wearing clothes from the “poor” box. But she has grown so mature in the past months. And as you can see she has changed a

She changed again too, when she was selfish, and didn’t know how to share, and didn’t let that little girl on the train hold her doll, but then she became mature, she gave her doll to isabel, that was really mature of her. She also changed when she had all those nice fancy things, and she could have been described as spoiled, then she changed and instead of complaining on her birthday about not getting anything, she was very understanding. My final thoughts are that Esperanza has gone through alot. I can’t even imagine losing my dad, let alone almost losing my mother too. But on the bright side look how far she’s gotten, she has a job, she got her grandma to california, she has a place to live, and her mama lived through being ill. And as you can see, Esperanza is a strong independent woman, and I would like to be more like