Famous All Over Town (Danny Santiago)

Chato Medina, the protagonist of this novel, has reached a crossroads and must decide what to do with his life. In order to make that decision, he thinks back through his memories of the past: "Maybe if I relived my yesterdays I could be surer of my tomorrows" (8). In reliving those yesterdays, he also relives his sense of his parents and how that sense changed. The sorts of changes noted for Chato are not unique to his situation. Every child begins as he begins--parents are simply accepted as a given, a p

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ther says his sister has not raised the subject because it is none of her business, and she says it is none of Chato's business, either (147)--but Chato does care. It is clear he feels deeply betrayed. He first rushes home filled with anger to tell his mother, and when he does not get the reaction he expects, he is dumbfounded and cannot let go of the anger building inside him. He waits for his father to return so he can throw his new-found knowledge up in the other man's face, but his father does not come home that night: I didn't care to leave the house. My friends would see the story in my face if they didn't know already. . . He was already at work when I woke up Monday and I went to school with my message still rumbling around inside me (149). Chato shows here how much his own sense of self is tied with his view of his parents--he is concerned about how this knowledge affects him, how his friends will feel, how the entire world views this boy whose father is unfaithful. Chato's meeting with Pelon becomes a way of expressing his independence, leading to tragedy and his arrest. The two steal a car, and in the ensuing chase a policeman shoots and kills Pelon. A social worker at Juvenile Hall reads a report on Chato whi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1689
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)