Inside Out By Francisco Jimenez

Dylan Dunnwald “Inside Out” Thematic Literary Essay.

Almost everyone experiences bullying, but some people do more than others. The short story “Inside Out” by Francisco Jiménez takes place in the U.S., where Francisco, an immigrant student from Mexico, is put into an all-American public school. Francisco could only speak Spanish and did not know anything about English. Throughout the story, Francisco faces problems while learning to fit in at his new school and classroom. One lesson this story suggests is that differences between people can often make us misunderstand each other.

Starting off, Roberto describes how being different and from another country affects his experiences with others in the school. Francisco asked his big brother

On his first few days at his new school, everyone goes out to recess to play, but Francisco stays inside the classroom. The others didn’t make sense of Francisco and why he did this. “Often during recess I stayed with the caterpillar” (3). This idea shows Francisco would stay with the class caterpillar over recess daily because he was embarrassed by the others. They thought this was different because everyone else loved recess and always went outside. This caused Francisco to receive comments about what he did because they didn't understand why he did this, which is a misunderstanding based on his differences. A little earlier in the story, the other students made fun of him because he was playing with the caterpillar. Since no one else did this, the other students thought it was different and made fun of it. “All the kids lined up outside the classroom door and then walked in quietly and took their seats. Some of them looked at me and giggled. Embarrassed and nervous, I looked at the caterpillar in the jar” (2). This shows that when the students found out Francisco would spend his time with the caterpillar, they thought he was “weird”, and they all laughed at him. This caused more misunderstandings between the students and him and made him embarrassed, exactly what Roberto told him might happen. Therefore, Francisco is embarrassed and made fun of because of being different from the rest of the