La Conchita Analysis

La Conchita analysis of Gordon In the story “La Conchita” by T. Coraghessan Boyle you find a character named Gordon who goes through a life hanging experience. The story starts off with Gordon who is trying to deliver a new liver to a twenty-seven-year-old mother of three kids. On his way to the hospital a huge mud slide had taken out the road he was on. The mud slide had caused Gordon to be stuck and he had to pull over to the side of the road. He was in a very bad situation because the liver was in a cooler and it didn’t have much time. Gordon called the hospital and said that he was stuck in a mud slide about fifteen miles from the hospital. The hospital had to send someone to fetch the liver that was in Gordon’s truck. While waiting for the someone to come pick up the liver Gordon was waiting in his car. Then a woman came up to him and was yelling for his help. Gordon went to see what was wrong and the woman had guided him to where the problem

Even though in the story Gordon had said multiple times that he wasn’t a hero “Again, as I said, I’m no hero-I’m barley able to take care of myself, if you want to know the truth-but I fell in beside her without a word” (page 99 La Conchita). I think that Gordon actually was a hero for helping this woman and saving her husband and daughter. He could’ve stayed on the side lines and let the woman try to rescue her husband and daughter on her own, but he didn’t. Some might say that he shouldn’t have let the liver sit there unsupervised but I think that he needed to help the woman right at that point or the husband and daughter could’ve died. Another point in the story Gordon claims that he wasn’t digging to be a hero but he was digging for the woman. Gordon says “I was no hero. I wasn’t digging to save anybody. I was digging for her” (page 100 La Conchita). I think that even Gordon wasn’t trying to be a hero, he actually was