Under The Feet Of Jesus Analysis

According to Viramontes, the unique challenges by Latina females is caused greatly by their ethnic background. Often women are oppressed by society, but when the issue is of color these challenges are harder to avoid. This does not only occur in this novel, but exists today in the real world. Many Latina females are often discriminated and harassed by societal influences, which makes them feel forced into specific roles. As seen in Under the Feet of Jesus, Estrella is a victim of these ongoing challenges, for being part of a low socioeconomic status, lack of education, and not being a legal U.S. citizen. Being a part of a low socioeconomic status gives rise to many issues that these families have to deal with. The main concern these families have is how they are going to monetarily provide for their family. In the novel, Estrella’s family lives pay check to pay check to provide for the basic living necessities. “It was always a question of work, and work
It is proven throughout the novel that Estrella struggles the most with her literacy when she is being educated. “She had opened the tool chest and all that jumbled steel inside the box, the iron bars and things with handles, the funny-shaped objects, seemed as confusing and foreign as the alphabet she could not decipher” (Viramontes 24). The tools are shown to be just a “man’s job” reminding Estrella on how she is not able to understand tools. This reflects her thoughts on school and how the language barrier between English and Spanish confuses her causing her to feel powerless. Her lack of education causes her to be unable to understand the English language in school. Combined with her English barrier, she has the disadvantage of having parents without a proper education. Estrella is unable to get the help necessary to guide her to better understand the material she learns at