The Line Becomes a River

by

Francisco Cantú

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Line Becomes a River makes teaching easy.

Cantú’s Uncle Character Analysis

Cantú visits his paternal uncle—his father’s brother—while he’s working in intelligence in El Paso. As a contractor, his uncle represents a person who has been able to destroy a natural landscape for work despite loving it so dearly, and as such he holds a mirror up to Cantú, who is internally grappling with the moral implications of his work in Border Patrol.

Cantú’s Uncle Quotes in The Line Becomes a River

The The Line Becomes a River quotes below are all either spoken by Cantú’s Uncle or refer to Cantú’s Uncle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Trauma and Emotional Detachment Theme Icon
).
Part 2 Quotes

My uncle began to recount all the natural things he had been made to destroy in the years he worked as a contractor in Santa Fe. At one job site he tore down a mighty pine tree and cut it into pieces. […] It’s overwhelming sometimes, he said, to think of all the trees I’ve killed, all the scars I’ve left in the land.

Related Characters: Francisco Cantú (speaker), Cantú’s Uncle
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:
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Cantú’s Uncle Quotes in The Line Becomes a River

The The Line Becomes a River quotes below are all either spoken by Cantú’s Uncle or refer to Cantú’s Uncle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Trauma and Emotional Detachment Theme Icon
).
Part 2 Quotes

My uncle began to recount all the natural things he had been made to destroy in the years he worked as a contractor in Santa Fe. At one job site he tore down a mighty pine tree and cut it into pieces. […] It’s overwhelming sometimes, he said, to think of all the trees I’ve killed, all the scars I’ve left in the land.

Related Characters: Francisco Cantú (speaker), Cantú’s Uncle
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis: