The Hamon and The Beans Critique - Essay Example

The Hammon and The Beans The story of Hammon and the Beans has been written by Américo Parédes and he tells the tale of Mexican American children who are living an improvised life. The setting of the story is in 1926 within a town that is situated south of Texas called Jonesville-on-the-Grande. Located near the town is a fort named Fort Jones and this setting as well the locations described in the story tie in with the authors hometown as well as the fort near his house that was used to keep soldiers while the Mexican American war was taking place and then the fort became a border post that housed soldiers (Saldívar, 2006). The story itself revolves around children who are not part of the situation but are involved in it as observers who are somewhat effected by the unease of the world around them. However, they do not fully understand the implications of what they are going through. The tone of the tale itself is set by the narrator who is a part of the group of children in the story but he remains unnamed. At the same time, his descriptive powers are quite good since he manages to show the readers exactly the life he was living including the house of his grandfather (Paredes, 1994). One of the details given by the narrator which stands out from amongst the rest is the idea that the life of the town was perfectly in tune with the life that was being followed at the fort. In essence, it establishes a link between the fort and the town which is not dependent on the manner in which the functioned but in how the town was governed by the sounds and noises coming from the fort. For example, a whistle that was blown in the fort meant that it was time for the children to go school and the townspeople generally took their lunch at the same time as the people in the fort (Paredes, 1994). The narrator is not rich but is by no means poor either. In fact, he appears to belong to the higher strata of society than others around him simply because his family is able to give refuge to others when they need it. The boy tells the readers about the issues that are coming up around the Mexican American border in his own way and uses that story to introduce a family living on a lot of land given by his grandfather to that family. The mother of that household did the washing for the narrator’s family out of a sense of gratitude but it is the daughter of the family which becomes more interesting for the readers and the narrator (Paredes, 1994). Chonita is one of the individuals the narrator plays with but she is also a member of his family group in some ways. Her father remains away from the family but her mother remains in the shack which is on the land owned by the narrator’s grandfather. However, as compared to the narrator, Chonita seems to be much bolder and she also shows how her needs get the better of her. At night, after the soldiers had had their dinners, the leftovers were handed to Chonita by the cooks who took pity on her (Paredes, 1994). This happened when the flag had gone down at the fort and while she herself was hungry, she had to stand and see the soldiers gorge themselves on food. Her position therefore, in relation to the soldiers and even to the narrator is little more than a beggar who has to seek out handouts from others. In fact, the appreciation which came to her from her peers was faked and handed out like charity when it was a joke in poor taste. She was made to stand and asked to give a speech where the only words she knew of English were incorrect and the other children were laughing at her. This certainly made him uncomfortable and he sincerely wished that the other children would stop doing that so that he and Chonita could go and play something else (Paredes, 1994). However, the narrator did not know how long this went on since he fell sick and when he got well he found that Chonita had gone. He grew older and only had faded memories about Chonita yet she remained a part of his thoughts. The memories came rushing back to him one night as he discovered that she had died. The cause of her death was not clarified to the narrator but the fact of her death did stand out. Moreover, the circumstances of her death and the idea that her father was busy drinking with his friends at the time simply show that there were not too many people in the region who cared about people like Chonita (Paredes, 1994). It is also clarified to the readers that her father was not her real father since the man who was her biological father was already dead. Chonita was essentially an orphan which somehow explains why her father did not care for her. Further, the town didn’t care for her and even the doctor treating her seems to have ignored her disease. In fact, the only person who seems to have cared for her in any measure is just the narrator since he is the only one who is strongly affected by the death of the girl. For the doctor and the narrator’s father, the death of the child only serves as a starting point for a discussion about the social order, for the boy, the death of Chonita comes with a profound sense of loss (Paredes, 1994). There is certainly a parallel between the discussion between the narrator’s father and the doctor as well as the sense of loss felt by the narrator and that comes from the fact that both are inconclusive. The discussion leads the doctor and the father to no particular conclusion and the loss felt by the narrator leaves him without closure with regard to Chonita although he does feel better after he has had a chance to cry over the loss. His tears triggered by the sound of the bugle for dinner at the fort which reminded him about Chonita going to the fort to seek food for herself. The narrator considers the idea that Chonita could hear the bugle and would be in heaven making the speech to seek out her ham and beans. This thought makes him cry and it certainly is the most touching point in the story. Perhaps Chonita was destined to suffer even in heaven as she had to beg for food in this world and the next. The destiny of the poor and destitute remains to live in poverty, die in poverty and then hope for a better life in heaven. While the poor die, the wars go on; soldiers keep eating their food and fighting for their country while not knowing what they are dying for. The story is quite sad and even though it is very easy to read, it is quite strong emotionally, the images created by the author as well as the manner in which they are presented to the readers are quite enough to draw tears. Beyond that, the treatment which Chonita received, as well as the manner in which people around her saw her, force the reader to think about the lot of the poor especially in war torn regions. While the narrator may come from a family that can deal with the issues around them through their money, Chonita and others like her have nothing to live for and nothing to look forward to in the future. It does make me wonder how many people like Chonita have suffered in the past due to the wars that have shaped the globe. Even today, while civilization makes tremendous advances in technology, science, medicine and the arts, there are wars that are leaving people homeless and creating more individuals like Chonita who have nothing to look forward to in their lives and even have to beg for their food from soldiers who are fed well since they are defending the country and fighting useless wars. In the process, they lose their identity; they lose their self respect and also lose their lives while no one really cares what happens to them. The story may be read as a critique of war itself as well as the social inequalities that come up when there are people who cannot feed themselves and children who are left fatherless when a war or the social situation in a region takes away their parents. Word Count: 1,591 Works Cited Paredes, A. 1994, The Hammon and the Beans and Other Stories, Arte Publico Press. Saldívar, R. 2006, The Borderlands of Culture: Américo Paredes and the Transnational Imaginary, Duke University Press. Read More