Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Circuit, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Change and Instability
Immigrants, Discrimination, and Injustice
Childhood vs. Adulthood
Family and Community
Summary
Analysis
After the strawberry season, Francisco’s family moves to Fowler to pick grapes. Then, they move on to Corcoran to pick cotton. It’s especially rainy that year at Corcoran. All the farm workers live in a row of small cabins beside a creek. Francisco’s family is crowded into their tiny quarters, and they’re running out of things to do in the rainy weather. Bored, Francisco stares out the window at a goldfish in a bowl that their neighbor keeps in his cabin. Mamá likes the fish, too—she calls it el Angel de Oro, or “Golden Angel.”
The family has moved a lot in the space of a few months as they follow the harvest of various crops. They must constantly acclimate themselves to different homes and different cities, different type of work at new farms, and new teachers and classmates at school. The solitary goldfish in Francisco’s neighbor’s house seems like a reflection of Francisco himself since he, too, is trapped in a small space and is looking out at the rest of the world, just like the fish is.
Themes
Papá is very worried, since he and the rest of the farm workers can’t pick cotton until the rains stop. The farmers pay the workers by the weight of the cotton they’ve picked—and since cotton will absorb the rainwater and weigh more, they don’t allow them to work when it is raining. Papá tells the family that if the rains don’t stop, they’ll have to leave Corcoran and find work elsewhere.
These details emphasize the harshness of life for itinerant farm workers, most of whom are undocumented immigrants. Even though the farmers are dependent on their work, they do not make any allowances for the workers themselves. It seems like the workers wouldn’t mind picking cotton in the rain since they are desperate to earn money, but they do not have this option since it’s not as profitable for the farmers.
Themes
Francisco’s school is just a mile away from the labor camp where Francisco lives with his family, and as he walks there, he meets Miguelito, a boy who lives in the same labor camp and who is two years older than Francisco. Miguelito accompanies Francisco to the school office and translates some of the principal’s questions into Spanish for him. After school, the boys meet on the playground and walk home together. The path is muddy and full of puddles, which Francisco and Miguelito jump over, pretending that they’re giants stepping over lakes. When Francisco slips and falls in one, the boys can’t stop laughing.
While Papá worries about money and work, Francisco is unconcerned about these matters since he is a child. He takes pleasure in friendship and laughter, which is a rare treat for him, since his family is constantly moving around. Kids like Francisco and Miguelito, whose parents are itinerant workers, don’t often get the chance to make friends.
Themes
When Francisco gets home, the family cabin is quiet, and he watches the goldfish in his neighbor’s house, wondering if it ever gets lonely. Later that evening, Francisco plays with Miguelito by the creek. Miguelito finds two long branches that he says they can make into fishing poles. He says that they can finish making them the next day, after school.
Again, the goldfish seems to parallel Francisco’s own state of mind: he feels cut off from the world and lonely, just as he imagines the fish does. His sudden and joyful friendship with Miguelito is an antidote to Francisco’s loneliness.
Themes
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The following morning, Francisco can’t wait to walk to school with Miguelito and play with him in the afternoon. However, he doesn’t find him, so he walks to school alone—and Miguelito isn’t at school either. After school, Francisco goes to Miguelito’s cabin and knocks on the door, and he’s heartbroken to find it empty: Miguelito’s family has moved out. Later that night, Francisco’s family returns—they’ve have been driving around all day, looking for work.
Jiménez shows that constant moving and instability are aspects of all migrant workers’ lives. The rainy weather in Corcoran has made it difficult for the workers to survive there, since they cannot pick cotton when it rains. Miguelito’s family probably gave up and moved away. Since Francisco and Miguelito had made plans to meet the following day, readers see how this constant moving takes its toll on children and their friendships—they are powerless as their families move them around.
Themes
The rain that night is so heavy that it causes the creek to flood. Days later, it finally stops raining, and when the water around the cabins starts to dry up, Francisco finds that the puddles are full of fish. The fish in the smaller puddles are dying. Francisco fills an empty can with water, picks up the fish that are still alive, and dumps them into the creek. He works for hours, until he’s exhausted and realizes that he can’t save all the fish. Francisco hopes it’ll rain again, but the sun is now bright, and the puddles are drying up too quickly.
Francisco is very tenderhearted. Ideally, he would like to save all the fish, but he realizes that this is impossible—and in this way, Francisco seems to be growing up and coming to terms with the harshness of life. Still, he hopes that the rains will return so the fish can survive, even though he knows that his own family is struggling without work and money because of the incessant rains. In this instance, his compassion is generous but impractical.
Themes
The last fish that Francisco rescues is a tiny gray one. He takes the can with the fish in it to his neighbor’s house and knocks on the door, but no one is home. Francisco leaves the fish on his neighbor’s doorstep. The next morning, he’s happy to see that the gray fish is peacefully swimming alongside the goldfish.
Francisco’s gesture of giving the goldfish a friend mirrors his own desire for friendship. He finds it hard to make friends because his family is constantly moving around, but he values friendship—and he misses his friend Miguelito. Since Francisco cannot have his friend back, he takes comfort in the fact that the lonely goldfish now has a companion. Perhaps this gives him hope that he, too, might have a friend one day.
Themes
