Parrot in the Oven
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English
2/16/15
“Parrot in the Oven” is a coming of age novel in which we see a young man, Manny Hernandez, change from an innocent boy who just wants a baseball glove, to someone who joins a gang, to someone who rejects criminal activity and “goes home”. Throughout these changes, his ethnic and socioeconomic circumstances have shaped these experiences.
“Perico, or parrot, was what Dad called me sometimes. It was from a Mexican saying about a parrot that complains how hot it is in the shade, while all along hes sitting inside an oven and doesnt know it.” (Martinez,1). Mannys dad is always saying that people are like money and that everyone one is a higher dollar compare to them who are just pennies but Manny wants to be a higher than a penny and also smarter than a parrot in an oven and wants to find out what a vato firme means. “Grandma Rosa died a few months later, and after the burial we gathered at her house.” (Martinez). There was only little said about Mannys grandma Rosa but when she dies it makes Manny so sad that he does not know how to cope the pain and goes on about how the funeral should have been better and then tells the stories the shared together as a kid. “Many wanted to learn how to kiss a girl and his friend Mondo said if you join my gang I promise you will get to kiss a girl” ( Martinez). For Manuel Hernandez, the year leading up to his test of courage, his initiation into a gang, is a time filled with the pain and tension, awkwardness and excitement of growing up in a crazy world. “He thought about how it was wrong of his friend Eddie to steal the old ladies purse so he started to chase him to catch him but he got away so he decided to forget the whole gang thing and went home”. The sight of him seeing his friend stealing from a hopeless old lady made him realize that bieng in a gang was getting him know were toward his goal of bieng more than a penny.