Literary Analysis - Because We Are So Poor
Uploaded by rdaguplo on Apr 04, 2013
“Because We Are So Poor”
Juan Rulfo
“Because We Are So Poor” begins with a sentence that sums up the tone of the story quite well: “Everything is going from bad to worse here.” The narrator is speaking about the hardships that his family has recently had to endure, and he subsequently tells us that his Aunt Jacinta died last week, and then during the burial “it began raining like never before.” The rain represents a problem because it has ruined the rye harvest which was stacked outside to dry in the sun, making the narrator's father very angry.
In this story we once again perceive Rulfo’s subtle critique of post-revolutionary Mexican society. This time it is the economy that comes under fire, however, as the reader immediately notices the profoundly rudimentary agricultural methods of the narrator’s family. The family has no choice but to set the harvest of rye out in the open to dry under the sun. As a result, when bad weather comes there is no way to shelter it. Additionally, when it needs to be moved, this can only be accomplished by hand. This description emphasizes the extremely underdeveloped nature of Mexican agriculture, especially in comparison with the modern capitalist system that the contemporary government hopes to impose.
Given the relatively poor quality of the redistributed land after the Revolution, many of the hopes of the rural poor rested in the possession of capital or consumption goods. As presented in the story, resources are so scarce that all the family’s hopes rest in the cow La Serpentina and her calf.
The role of the father is prominent in the story. Throughout the story, the father is the person charged with the responsibility of shepherding his family through the various trials of life, and in this case we see he is the first to recognize the full ramifications of the flood. With the rising of the waters not only has the family lost its collective capital in the ruined rye, but also that of their last daughter. The father’s failed economic attempt to capitalize therefore leads to a moral failure as it means his daughter will become a prostitute.
The Rulfian theme of “unbalanced nature” is once again at play in this story. Such emphasis on the natural environment and its effect on the men and women who are subject to its whims might remind us of the “naturalist” quality of much...