Mother Character Analysis

Mother is the matriarch of Carlos’s family. Like Father, Carlos never reveals her actual name. Mother is illiterate, and while Father farms the land, she spends her time peddling salted fish and beans in the surrounding villages and raising eight children. Like Father, mother endures a harsh life defined by physical and psychological strain. Whereas Father’s struggle to buy back his land shows Carlos the private shame of living in poverty, Mother’s frequent public humiliations expose him to the public shame of a peasant’s life. When a wealthy girl mocks mother’s poor circumstances and causes her to spill her beans, mother makes no effort to protest and, instead, accepts her lowly status. Working with his mother peddling in the towns and villages brings Carlos in proximity to the wealthier classes of people who control the reins of power in the Philippines, and it alerts him the cold reality of class divisions that define society in both the Philippines and America. As Carlos grows older, he recognizes how his mother’s sacrifices inspired his own desire to make the world a better place.