Lucky Broken Girl

Setting:
The story takes place in 1966. The family lives in New York and they often speak of their native country, Cuba.

Characters

• Ruthie: Ruthie is a young girl who recently immigrated to New York from Cuba with her family. She works hard on her English to be promoted to the "smart class". She also is very proud of being named the Hopscotch Queen. Her happiness is interupted when the family gets into a car crash and she ends up bedridden for months in a full body cast.

Characters

• Mami: Mami is Ruthie's mom. She misses Cuba very much and she takes on the gender role of being the one who cooks, cleans, and makes sure her husband stays in a good mood.

Characters

• Papi: Papi is Ruthie's father. He works multiple jobs to take care of the family financially. He loses his temper quite easily and is so caught up with living in the land of the free, that he makes rash decisions, such as taking out a loan to purchase a car.

Plot:
Ruthie and her family move from Cuba to New York. Everything is so different. Just as Ruthie is adjusting to a new language and new friends, her life drastically changes. Ruthie is involved in a car accident and ends up having to be bedridden in a full body cast for many months. She feels so much hate and sadness, but her spirits start to lift when she finally finds a purpose.

Analysis #1:
Gender roles and expectations can be seen throughout the story. For example, when Papi gives Izzie a toy car, Izzie kisses Papi's cheek. Papi tells Izzie, "...but don't kiss me, okay? You can kiss your mami but not your papi. Men don't kiss each other. Men shake hands".

Analysis #1cont.:
Another example is when Mami tells Papi that the go-go boots were not necessary and that Izzie has plenty of toy cars. Papi gets mad and says, "...I am the man in this house! I earn the money and I can spend it as I please".

Analysis #1cont.:
Race is also an impact in the book. There are several times in the book where the family is misjudged of not knowing English because of their race. One example can be found after the car accident. One of the men says, "See if any of them can speak English". This issue is brought up again while they are in the hospital. "The nurse raises her voice. 'Don't you people understand English'"? I cannot help but think that if Ruthie and her family were white, then those comments would not have been used towards them.

Analysis #2:
I really connected with Ruthie after her accident. She was in a full body cast and was bedridden. I had a similar experience and was in a neck brace for months. Ruthie talked about having hate in her heart for the boy who caused the accident and she would pray for it to go away. I also had hate in my heart for the person who fractured my heart. I struggled with that and would pray for that hate to go away.

Analysis #2 cont.:
Ruthie and I have differences, especially when it comes to education. I only know English and Ruthie's primary language is Spanish. Ruthie was put into a remedial class because she was still learning English. She had to work extra hard in order to get promoted from the remedial class. She referred to the remedial class as the "dumb class". It made me sad that she considered that class to be for dumb people just because she was not proficient in English.

Analysis #3:

Joy was a positive impact for Ruthie. She not only gave Ruthie some company, but she gave her a purpose. She brought Ruthie some Nancy Drew books. She really enjoyed those books and had reread them. She would put herself into the story and it would help take her mind off of being so lonely.

Analysis #3 cont.:

Ramu also had a positive impact on her life. They bonded in class because they were both in the "dumb class". They also found similarities in each other because they both came from different countries to New York. When Ramu was finally able to sneak away and visit Ruthie he gave her his necklace that had the god, Shiva on it. This gave her hope and she even started to pray to the god.

Analysis #3 cont.:

Another character that I found that impacted Ruthie positively was Chicho. He not only ate dinner with her so she would not have to eat alone, but he also painted her cast. Ruthie was inspired by his art and Chicho was nice enough to bring some supplies over for Ruthie to use. He also helped her set it up and told her he would come clean up when she was done. This made Ruthie happy and she had a purpose.

Content Based Analysis #4:
In chapter 4 of the textbook reading we learned about gender roles. This helped me make connections to the gender roles I saw in the book. Papi was instilling his views onto Izzie at a young age. bound. In the reading it states, "Young children learn to distinguish gender tasks based on the behavior of significant adults".