Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez Essay Example
Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez Essay Example

Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez Essay Example

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  • Pages: 3 (767 words)
  • Published: January 20, 2017
  • Type: Essay
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The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez by John Rechy delves into the life of Amalia Gomez; a Mexican-American woman living in a poor rural area of Hollywood. The structure of her family is falling apart due to conflict between the characters and Amalia’s lack of involvement in their lives. Her youngest son Juan is a male prostitute known as a “maricOn”, her daughter Gloria is falling dangerously close to following in Amalia’s footsteps, and her oldest son Manny although well intentioned starts to clone his father’s criminal tendencies even though he has no recollections of his father.

Amalia’s selective perspective also leads to conflict within herself since she is content not knowing the truth as long as the false reality fits her ideal world. Amalia’s parenting skills and obliviousness

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is the direct cause of her children’s transgressions. Amalia recollects memories of her past jumping from one event to another without regard of any constant timeline. One reoccurring concept throughout her life is her dependency upon her lover or husband to support her. This dependency stemmed from a deep rooted psychological value that prevented Amalia from realizing there was more options that relying on a man for income.

In the instances of her first marriage she was forced to marry because she would not be able to support a child and she was now too impure for any man to love her. Her first husband Salvador mistreated her as his wife which led to Amalia’s attraction to Gabriel because of his kind heart and tenderness, also his name was a religious one which Amalia relied on Gabriel’s religious ties to convince herself

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that a man with a holy name could not be aggressive. Many of the causes of Amalia’s problems stem from her barbaric viewpoint on life and past tendencies.

Amalia is satisfied living an oblivious life because she believes that as long as she isn’t fully aware of the situation that everything will turn out fine. Comparatively speaking, Amalia and her mother have a lot in common yet also have some prominent differences. Amalia’s mother Teresa has a moreover old fashioned point of view concerning marriage which can be seen in her dedication to her husband, as can be seen in her conversation with Amalia as she decided to move back with her husband “God will remember that I never divorced my husband. (59). Teresa looks down upon Amalia because her moral values don’t consist of remaining faithful to a man that can provide for her no matter what she has to endure to keep a relationship. Teresa is partially the cause of the psychological effects Amalia is haunted by from her past. When Amalia tells her mother Teresa that she was raped by Salvador; whom would later become her first husband, Teresa doesn’t believe that her daughter was raped and forces Amalia and Salvador to marry.

Teresa often flaunts her religion to Amalia by stubbornly placing her statue of La dolorosa, the Mother of Sorrows in a visible place in Amalia’s home. Teresa puts down Amalia and criticizes her life decisions and parenting skills. Teresa’s constant disapproval contributes to the psychological effects that lead to Amalia’s bad sense of life priorities. [relationship between Manny and Amalia] Due to her mother’s perspective Amalia attempted

to instill higher moral standards upon her children.

Her firstborn Manny had been the product of her first marriage to Salvador and greatly represented his father although he had no recollection of him. Manny get a tattoo of a burning cross on his hand identical to that of his father’s which causes Amalia to become overwhelmed with hatred for the memory of Salvador and anything associated with him. When Manny brings her gifts she turns a blind eye and doesn’t ask him how he got the money for his numerous gifts bestowed upon her. Amalia tried her hardest to see the best in her children and refused to believe that Manny had obtained her presents through an illegal manner.

Amalia is so convinced of Manny’s good willed spirit that when he commits suicide in prison she refuses to believe it and instead convinces herself of a conspiracy within the prison. The whole while she refused to read but parts of a letter Manny had sent to her shortly before his abrupt death. She goes to extreme lengths to convince herself and others around her that her son would never do such an ungodly thing because it would reflect on her parenting skills and personality.

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