Reyna Grande Essay

Reyna Grande Essay

  • Submitted By: becca101
  • Date Submitted: 11/29/2015 12:07 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1145
  • Page: 5


The Distance Between Hansel and Gretel

The story Hansel and Gretel is central to The Distance Between Us because its plot helps us come to understand why Reyna’s parents continue to abandon their children along the course of the story. Many fears of children are embodied in Hansel and Gretel, from fear of abandonment to a caution about the kindly person who means them harm. This story teaches the child that very bad things can and do happen but that they can be survived and overcome. In this tale, the characters are without question either good or evil.  The good characters experience great suffering, and are victims of wrongdoing.  The evil characters are truly evil, and wish to violently destroy the good.  This fictional representation is very true to life. Grande has characters in her novel that completely fall into these categories. Reyna’s father Natalio, like the father in Hansel and Gretel, leaves his wife and three children behind in a village where life is a day to day struggle. Both stories follow children who are anxiously trying to escape their current predicament and all the while trying to figure out who around them is trustworthy. In these stories, the children naturally feel the fear of abandonment.  The outcome of this fear for Hansel is cunning and courage and for Reyna, the knowledge that life isn’t always fair but even the biggest problems can be overcome. Without the fear, or the occasion that caused it, there would be no need for valor. 
At the beginning of “The Distance Between Us” Reyna’s parents leave to El Otro Lado because of their poor economical situation. They go with the intention of acquiring a better life for themselves and their children. The “evil stepmother” in this story is El Otro Lado. The strain of poverty in Mexico is what drives the parent’s decision to leave their children. As the story Hansel and Gretel begins, both children over hear their mother’s malicious plan to get rid of her kids. A similar situation...

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