Bijoy Babu

1/11/10

Language Arts

The Circuit

Can you imagine moving to place from place almost every season just because your family can't earn enough money from your job? Losing everything you knew and loved? What a disappointment! Just think if you were in the main character's shoes, which is a young boy named Panchito. He has yet lived another season of moving from place to place. What will he soon learn and discover here, in his new home in Fresno, California? Fransisco Jimenez recreates these scenes in his book, the "Circuit," and we learn that Panchito must gain some courage to keep moving on, to never stop trying to give up. He knows that he is struggling with the moving but if he can survive it, he can try to get use to it.

The story starts off with Panchito before moving to Fresno, California. He gets ready to move, packing. You find out that they are a poor family, a migrant family. Their dad, his brother and himself are the only ones with jobs in the family, which is picking fruit from the vineyards. The whole story really is mixed with the author's own life as a child. The Circuit was almost his regular childhood moving from place to place. As you read the book, you see that Panchito has a interdependent life with his family, because his family has to keep moving. He has no friends whatsoever. The only remembrance of their families past is only their mother's cooking pot. The cooking pot is a symbolic of the family's togetherness. It was almost time for moving again. You see Panchito's dad putting some boxes in their family's only car, the Plymouth 38. This is their only form of transportation. Their dad calls it the "Caracanchita." When he first bought it, he inspected every inch of it to see if it will serve well for the family. It was a very impressive car and will also be a remembrance of Panchito's family forever. Now, they are finally heading for a new home, a new beginning.

Panchito has now arrived at his new home, in Fresno, California. It's time to unpack the boxes to a new life. His new home is a important symbol in the story, a shack, which symbolizes a poor, dirty, rotten place. it will be hard to live in their, it's a risk to take. The ceiling was eaten up by a colony of termites and the ground was gray, dull, and slimy, dominated by living and dead earthworms. He has had no friends for a long time. He has a very upsetting life as a migrant family. His only friends that could and perhaps ever will be is his family. He sees that there might be no luck for him. Like all the other homes he had, this one wouldn't be any different. Now Panchito and his brother are resting in the fields by the vineyards. After a long day's of work they see a school bus come by. Immediately they run for cover as fast as they can. You see, Panchito can't go to school, his parents can't afford it. This is one of the reasons that their job is bad. They can't afford that much and try to save as much as possible for necessities. They can't be seen by the school because every one's child living in the county has to go to school, so if the school finds Panchito and his brother are not going to school, they will force them to. The only thing is, they just can't afford it. After the school bus has left Panchito has met up with his brother and father to finally have a talk. His father said that one of them can go to school. Panchito and his brother didn't understand but their father was telling the truth. He said that Panchito was the one. Panchito was so surprised he actually got to go to school but then a sense of guilt ran through his mind. He actually felt guilty that his brother couldn't go to school with him. If there was any way for his brother to go to school with him, he would do it! Panchito something that wasn't fault.

Today, is the day that Panchito has to got to school. He still feels guilty that he is the only one that is going to school. He wants his brother to come to. It's still weird that he is guilty and felling bad about something that wasn't his fault. He has his first day at school and is seated in his class. His L.A. teacher, Mr. Lema introduced him to the class. Panchito was very nervous, he should have been because this is his first time to a school and he doesn't know English. Mr. Lema has given everyone in the class a book. Panchito was a little worried when he first saw the title of the book, it read: it was an English book. When the teacher asked Panchito to read the book, Panchito got really nervous. He started reading but mumbled the words. He was getting really annoyed and embarrassed. Finally when Mr. Lema came he asked Panchito to if he can speak English. You could feel that Panchito was really struggling and the English book in the story is symbolizing great pain and also struggle. Mr. Lema is hear to help Panchito learn English and Panchito is really felling good and o.k. From the following weeks Panchito has gained one friend, his L.A. teacher. I those weeks he wanted to learn how to play the trumpet in his whole life. Finally he got a chance to learn it. He was really adapting to the school. After about a month, he went home one day and discovered the mos terrible thing, he was shocked. It was the worst thing possible....he had to move. He saw the boxes and finally knew what it meant. He had to end his life here, in Fresno and now move somewhere else. His new life ends again. All that time has now gone to waste. Now he has to start his life all over again.

The overall review of this story, the Circuit shows amazingly detailed story about a migrant boy's life from moving from place to place. It is a tragic story but he gains hope. Then he losses it at the end of the book when he finds out he has to move again when his family just settled. It is a very good book, has lots of heart. It is a sad story but has Lot's of life. I think Fransisco Jimenez did an excellent job writing this book.