Cecelia Brown Professor Fargnoli English 102 May 4 TH 2024 Patron saints of nothing and seeking and confronting uncomfortable truths. The book The Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay follows the story of a young adult named Jay. After Jay discovers his cousin died within the Philippians, Jay goes on to try to find what truly happened while finding himself in the process. The interpretation of the text is to highlight the importance of seeking and confronting that truth, whether that be about his cousin's death or himself. self. I am a shaman. His book goes on to highlight themes of identity, justice, and the importance of finding the truth. Throughout this essay, we explore the significance of this text and the topics discussed within …show more content…
Jay is heartbroken when finding out and demands to know what happened to his cousin to begin the grieving process, but he denies the truth from his father. As it states on page 10 the conversation goes as follows, “He takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes, "Sometimes they do.” “So, it was random? Like a car accident or something?” Dad puts his glasses back on but avoids looking at me. He says nothing for a few beats and then quietly, “What would it change if you knew?” I did not answer because I could not. Doesn't the truth matter?” The reason this piece early on is so important to the story and the reason the purpose of this piece is to highlight the importance of seeking and highlighting the truth is because Jay is automatically denied as soon as he asks. This lack of communication between Jay and his father shows that Jay genuinely cares about his cousin's truth and density and being denied this information only makes him want it more. On top of this, it also shows Jay's need for justice and finding the truth because without this information that is needed Jay does not know if there was any justice for his cousin's death. This also highlights how Jay's identity is also centered around his family as he needs to know the truth about it because it plays such a significant role in his identity. This is shown when he pleads for the truth from his dad on page 12, where he tries to learn what happened to his cousin, but his dad and his sister do not tell