Is Makina a heroic figure or a victim in the novel

Reference:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F2eBzFhCX7T8vlAwq3cuole41PZ14lCO/view?usp=sharing

Respond to the following prompts with a two-paragraph submission.

1) Is Makina a heroic figure or a victim in the novel?

2) What is your understanding of how the book ends?

3) What do you think of two students’ replies? Explain.

Student 1

1. I think this is an interesting question because Makina presents traits of both a heroic figure and a victim and really can’t be summed up with just one of them. I think Makina faces many challenges in the way that a hero would, and her perseverance throughout the book despite them is indicative of her strength. I thought that the scene at the end of the novel where she writes a poem was chock-full of raw emotion and strength which I found to be very heroic! However, I also don’t think Makina “won” in the way that a hero typically would, as she wasn’t able to bring her brother back home, which I think makes her a victim of her situation and the racism present in America. 

2. I was definitely a little confused by the ending of the book, as I initially interpreted that Makina died somehow at the end. A part of me thought that she may have died earlier in the book, particularly when she got shot trying to cross the border (as she mentioned not being able to feel it or suffer any physical repercussions), but that would mean that everything happening after that point would be with other dead people which I don’t think makes sense. Ultimately I think that the ending was supposed to represent that Makina died in a metaphorical sense — she lost some of her spirit on the journey to America and facing discrimination. Maybe her spirit was broken because her brother didn’t return home with her, leading to a metaphorical “death.”

Student 2

1) Is Makina a heroic figure or a victim in the novel?

I find it hard to find any heroic qualities with Makina because I wasn’t able to construct her as an individual character in such a short amount of time. Nothing stands out as a truly heroic act to me. In the beginning, she helped those two boys by warning them to find new help. Although a warm and unnecessary gesture, I don’t see it as heroic. Luckily for her, the favor is returned when one of the boys gave her a clue to her brother’s location. I would see her as more of a victim than a heroic figure however. She is the victim of many dangers that she encountered on her journey. There is the incident of the police line she was subjected to on the basis of her skin. You could say she’s a victim of a racial system where she must adopt a new identity to survive. When she wrote out her own poem was the closest thing to a heroic act. Unfortunately I don’t fully understand Makina’s character so I wasn’t able to confidently attribute this to the act of a heroic figure.

2) What is your understanding of how the book ends?

The book ends with the “death” of Makina’s old life and identity. She narrowly avoids physical death at the beginning of the novel by not falling through a sinkhole into the literal underworld. However she still “dies” by going through the criminal underworld where she now has a new identity with all of her old life behind her. Throughout the novel, I could see there was an emphasis on detailing the small details of her life in the old country such as her occupation, family members, romantic interest, and the people. Metaphorically, these anecdotes were signs preceding the end of the world. There’s the age old saying that “life flashes before your eye before you die”. This means that right before you die, you will relive all the memories of your life up until that point. I believe this is to show that many of us have to metaphorically die in order to change our lives. This is a recurring theme for many immigrants that points out the difficulty in adapting to a new culture.

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