Distance Analytical Literary Essay PDF

Lashae Fadero 12/5/2024 Pre-AP English II Mrs. Warren - Distance Analytical Literary Essay - Growing up in a fractured family setting can leave many lasting scars. The book The Distance Between Us shows how growing up in this type of environment can caus...

Lashae Fadero 12/5/2024 Pre-AP English II Mrs. Warren - Distance Analytical Literary Essay - Growing up in a fractured family setting can leave many lasting scars. The book The Distance Between Us shows how growing up in this type of environment can cause strained relationships and shape one’s mental health as well as their emotional well- being. As Reyna Grande shares her experiences growing up in poverty and dealing with continuously being separated from very important people in her life, she displays how this negatively affected not only her but her siblings as well. Grande’s work suggests that strained family relationships can affect someone in many aspects as they grow up. In the book The Distance Between Us, Grande shows how strained family relationships and fractured family settings can affect someone in many aspects as they grow up by using emotional impact throughout the book. For example, early in the book Reyna’s older sister Mago displays how her father’s absence negatively affected her as she tells him “I miss you and still cry for you, take pity on me” (140). This demonstrates how the absence of their father negatively affected the children as they display how they cried for him and urged for pity from him. Another example that Grande provides in the book that presents how strained family relationships and fractured family settings can affect someone in many aspects is when Reyna has her first romantic infatuation. This romantic infatuation is portrayed as a significant part of Reyna’s teenage years, as Luis doesn’t necessarily reciprocate Reyna’s feelings and eventually ghosts her, she assumes that “maybe Luis thought like [her] father and mother, maybe it was just easy to leave [her]” (249). This displays how Reyna constantly being abandoned led to low self-esteem and caused her to struggle from abandonment. Another way that Grande’s work suggests that strained family relationships can affect someone in many aspects as they grow up is by displaying resilience and determination throughout the book. For example, although Reyna is constantly separated from her parent’s she remains hopeful and determined about reuniting with her parents. Another example of Grande displaying determination throughout the book was showing how Reyna continued to attempt to make Papi proud by getting good grades in school. For instance, when Reyna “learned there was going to be a schoolwide competition” she saw it as an opportunity “to make Papi proud” (158). To add on, Grande displays resilience throughout the book The Distance Between Us through the characters ability to endure pain and abandonment and to continue to push forward despite the many obstacles they face like, “[surviving] being left by [their] father" and “[living] through [their] mother’s constant comings and goings (111). While Reyna and her siblings were raised in extreme poverty, living in “one of the poorest states in Mexico,” they stuck together and did not let their unfortunate circumstances defeat them (12). Resilience is also shown throughout the book as Reyna and her siblings Mago and Carlos overcome their father’s abusive behavior. Lastly, Grande’s work suggests that strained family relationships can affect someone in many aspects as they grow up, as she displays how it affects their mental health throughout the book. For example, as Papi continued to treat Reyna poorly it caused her to think poorly of herself as she began to believe that she “wasn’t worth anything” and questioning “why else would Papi treat [her] the way he [did]” (197). In addition, another example of strained relationships affecting mental health throughout the book is, shown through emotional and physical neglect, as Mami would become very distant toward Mago, Carlos, and Reyna they would start to believe that “[their] loyalty and [their] love wouldn’t be enough” (68). Grande also displays how the children were physically neglected as, they “were nearly always covered in dirt and [their] clothes looked as if [they] had mopped the floor with them” (30).