Highwire Moon by Susan Straight - Book Report/Review Example

Despite being in another country, away from her real home, she makes bold decisions. This is an outstanding step that Serafina takes. When Larry starts to disappear from home, she decides to leave the house with her daughter. She probably does so, thinking about her child. She fears about the horrible parenting that Elvia would receive while staying there. Dramatically when she leaves home and goes outside with Elvia, she stops at a church to ask for direction, and that is where her life takes a sad turn as she is seized by the immigration police and she gets departed from her child.

Serafina dripping heavily with motherly love for her child and tries to claw her way out of the grip of police officers holding her but she fails. She tries to yell her cries about her child but her thick accent makes no sense to the police. She is immediately thrown back to Mexico and that leaves Elvia alone who was sleeping in the car. But that’s where the character of Serafina really shines as she fights her way back to the U.S.A to find her daughter. Serafina already has been to the United States of America and she knows what kind of troubles an immigrant has to face while crossing the border and even if he makes it across, life isn’t really like the dream.

Despite such knowledge and experience she takes this risk and tries to cross the border once again to find her precious child. She crosses high mountains and rough and merciless grounds. She had to deal with coyotes – those who exploit people who are desperate to make it across the border into the United States. Serafina bears every severity of life only to be with her child. After deportation, she immediately tries to make it back to the USA but ends up nearly dead while crossing the border and she had to spend time in the hospital, recuperating.

To regain health, Serafina takes about a year to recover but as soon as she starts planning to cross the border again and risk her own life for her dear child, her own mother gets sick and starts a slow yet painful journey towards her death. This is where Serafina has a choice. On one hand, she has her motherly love for her own daughter Elvia, who is supposedly somewhere in the US and on the other hand, there is her own mother who is on death bed. She chooses to take care of her beloved mother and stays in Mexico with her.

Serafina sacrifices her own pleasure of finding her daughter for her sick mother. But despite being miles away from her child, she constantly thinks of her daughter Elvia and plans how will she make her journey across the border into the US and reach her. And it gets heartbreaking to know that she had to spend 12 years planning this journey while taking care of her mother before her mother dies and then she starts her quest for her daughter. The character Serafina is a true example of sacrifices and motherly love.