Character Development Analysis: Lupe

In her first chapter, we're introduced to Lupe and how loved she feels. Her dad left the family when Lupe was only five years old, her brother Tito hangs out with his friends, and her sister Christina has a child. Lupe's mom cares mostly about her job and Berto, Lupe's stepdad. Berto treats his wife almost like a slave. Living with parents that ignore her most of the time, Lupe feels unloved and not cared for. When she talks about her situation, she says "I used to write him. So many letters. But he never wrote back. Why, Papi? There's nobody here to love me now. Mami has Berto, Tito has his carnales on the streets, Christina has Chooch and Rosa. And me?... But if I had a real baby, she would love me like that." Every other family member has somebody to love and somebody that loves them except for Lupe. Her own mother cares more about Berto than Lupe. She acknowledges this and thinks about a doll she had when she was little. This gives Lupe the idea of having a real child for love and attention. The lack of love at home leaves Lupe desperate enough to want to do this.

After considering her plan to raise a child and a certain incident, Lupe doesn't feel as lonely. Marco, Lupe's boyfriend, didn't have time to be with her. Going through with her plan to have a baby, Lupe realizes that she'd need a father better than Marco. She decides to break up with him which leaves her feeling more isolated than before, but only for a moment. When describing what happened, Lupe says "I told her about Marco, and how I left him, and how he didn't even seem to care that much, and how I was all alone now... So I don't have a boyfriend now. So what? Neither does Janelle. Or Gloria. Or Leslie. But we have each other. Maybe we can all be alone together." A moment after the breakup, Lupe feels completely and truly isolated. She called Leslie and was comforted by being able to talk to a friend. Lupe then realizes that she has all of her other friends to feel loved by. Her perspective on her conflict changes from a negative perspective to a positive one. At first she feels unloved but later realizes that she has friends that can help her out.

Lupe's point of view on things were affected mostly by the people around her. The reason she felt undervalued was because of her mother and Berto. This led to her conflict of Lupe wanting a child. Because she wanted a child, she broke up with Marco who Lupe thought barely cared. Lupe's friends then comfort her and make her feel loved. Lupe's original conflict, with the help of people close to her, changed her perspective on how isolated she really was.
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Porscha has a noticeable difference between her written backstory. Her written piece starts off with her talking about why she want to change her name. This explains why she lost her temper and went violent on a bully who made fun of Porscha for her name. Porscha uses this incident to talk about her mom, how she used to act, the fact that she has her mother's short temper, and why she doesn't want to hurt anybody. It's written in prose and explains how she feels about the calm Porscha hidden inside the violent one that everybody sees.

After talking about being able to express Porscha through poetry and the Open Mike Fridays, the reader sees her poem. This poem is in the format of a letter. The letter contains a message from Porscha to her deceased mom. Porscha still had things that she wanted to tell and ask her mom about as well as thing's she's done in the past.

Porscha's written piece contributes to her message because she talks about how she believes in the kind and calm version of her. It also explains why others think of her as somebody to stay away from. The written piece is simply backstory which sets the scene for Porscha's poem. The poem's style contributes to her message of wanting to tell things to her mother by being written as a letter. Letters tend to be used to send messages to people. By writing her message as a letter, there's a deeper meaning to what she's trying to say, especially since she's writing to a dead loved one.