Amado Character Analysis

Amado is the youngest of Carlos’s four brothers. Like Carlos, Amado spends his childhood in the Philippines helping his family perform the back-breaking farm labor that is necessary for their survival. Amado is a strong-willed and somewhat impulsive person who flees to Binalonan following a spat with his father over the treatment of a water buffalo during a rainstorm. Amado works for a time as a janitor in Binalonan’s town hall, but he develops an appreciation for the value of education despite only attending school to the fifth grade. He provides Carlos with books and magazines, and proves to be a significant influence on his brother’s lifelong commitment to reading and studying. After working a series of jobs in the Philippines, Amado moves to America, where his ostracized status as a Filipino sends him into the underworld of bootlegging, gambling, and theft with his partner, Alfredo. He spends time in jail but has stretches where he works within the law. He opens a successful restaurant and hotel, and works for a shady white lawyer. The latter job estranges him from Carlos for a long period. When Amado and Carlos reunite, Amado works to care for his other brother, Macario, but he cannot escape the influence of his underworld contacts, which strains the brothers’ relationship. At the book’s end, Amado joins the United States Navy, and his fate remains a mystery.