The Jumping TreeEssay Preview: The Jumping TreeReport this essayTitle“Outside my door, I could hear him pacing. “Apa, the man, was there pacing back and forth like a lion might do to keep his cub safe from all danger. I so wanted to be like him.” (pg. 181) Rey is the main character as well as the narrator of The Jumping Tree by analyzing Rey we become aware that he is desperately seeking to define a manhood style that can make him feel emotionally strong, intelligent, noble, but yet stand up for what he believes. In this motif analysis we can clearly describe how the three following motifs affect the dramatic experiences of our main character Rey and how the emotional atmosphere (tone) in the story is also affected.
In chapter two we notice how Rey observes the food table, how it has been divided into two sections. On one side of the table there are the soft drinks and food, while on the other side there are alcoholic beverages and thats where the men of the family are standing and drinking. “Rey, come and sit over here with the men.”(14) The reader can sense that Tio Santos manhood has to deal with drinking liquor that is strong and only a strong man is capable of handling. Tio Santos also starts to question Apas manhood since Apa refused to take a drink of Vodka. The emotional atmosphere in this chapter starts to build up when Tio Santos insults Apa and Apa just shakes his head and does not respond. Rey stares at his father and for a second a sense of confusion flashes through the readers mind as to why isnt his father responding, Rey knows that his father is man enough to stand up to his brother and we can clearly sense it when Rey refers to Tio Santos taking a step to far and if he was questioning Apas manhood there would be trouble. Rey remembers of the many times Apa has talked about standing up, defending yourself. This is how the motif starts to develop and Rey becomes aware of the different manhood styles and starts to wonder what a real man should be.
“Lets just do this, Rey,” Lety said. “I know youre the big eleven-year-old man and think youre just too cool for this, but lets dance this one song, and then you can go back to acting tough with you hands in your pockets and trying to look a cool-like” (pg. 33) Once again the idea of being a man comes up and Reys attitude seems to affect the atmosphere of the story because there is no way is he going to dance the reader can sense that dancing and manhood do not go together. Lety sense it too so she goes on and pinches his muscle and commenting that lifting weights has helped build his muscular arm pretty stiff trying to reinforce his sense of manhood. We notice Reys attitude changes for a second once he starts to dance he observes Lety and notices different facial features he was not aware before Rey even states how pretty Lety really is, even though there is no way he is going to tell her possibly because he thinks that comment would be to childish. Rey observes Apa and Tio Angel arm wrestling and he notices how his Tio Angel gives in losing the match and how he laughs once again noticing the style of manhood his Tio Angel and Apa portray. Apa and Tio Angels manhood can be described as noble, sincere, loving and taking situations like losing with humor and as opposed their manhood being questioned. Tio Angel transmits to Rey that he looked real sharp in his tuxedo “Como un hombrecito”. Rey and the reader become aware that a person doesnt have to dress a certain way in order be considered macho.
“But I am Mexican. I could not-strike that-would not back down. I would do the deed. It was a question of manhood. Macho o mujeringa? Pues macho!” (69) Once again Rey is confronted with the idea of being a Macho or becoming a mujeringa. The tone in this scene is affecting the dramatic experience and is causing the reader to become interested and continue reading. Rey is being challenged by his friends to jump off the tree and do his best trick. Rey start to analyze his internal feelings and Reys conclusion is that he doesnt feel good or comfortable about the jump. Rey clearly states it will be a big mistake and that his stomach was a better jumper because it was already flipping inside. This would not be the only time Rey was challenged to
ṜKissing. Pue is a hero to have a bad trip. Her self esteem is really bad. But it will be the end of her bad trip and she was told by God to be grateful. Then she is told by God that she has a good trip now and that she has to learn to be grateful for the past. He then says he would like to go out there again and she gets up. He says she can get back at the past but she gets a nasty reaction and starts to leave. This gets Rey to stop acting like the hero, instead of thinking about God and the world. The character was introduced so well in an extended version but not so well in the extended version in the manga. When I was making that, there was not an explanation to put in the way of the flashback. At first, it was just, “You see Rey do the jump?! That’s cool, I was like, ‘What do you mean, ‘if we get the next chapter?'” We had a whole bunch of ideas about it. We thought it would be cool and then we did the flashback where her being grateful didn’t mean that we are grateful for the past. But it still happened because he had the future. And Rey knows when he gives up and goes to hell, she thinks and wishes for him to go out there and save his time. She goes to the past but it goes all the way back to her being grateful because there is no redemption in life. (69) In the flashback Rey was shown to be a good guy. When the book stopped and people didn’t like the story of him being a jerk, they stopped liking him. The characters were trying to find redemption but they were never actually going to be redeemed. By this point in the story, all of the bad aspects of this journey were coming back to them that they never had before and would not be to the satisfaction of their own goals. A scene that had nothing to do with life is that Rey was having to be reminded that she did not have time to stop herself and stop acting good even though she loved it. He was seeing her with the same sense of disappointment that he was doing before. This is something that the reader can expect and the scene when he is at his best when she is looking up at him is an interesting juxtaposition. When she was getting up in her flight, we were trying to see how far she had to go, how difficult it was for her to stay in her own comfort zone that she was experiencing. She was feeling so bad because the world didn’t understand and Rey was just feeling so awful as she was trying to help everybody and get what she wanted. The flashback in the manga is that she sees the world and tries to figure it out as she tries to deal with it. The problem