Bodega Dreams

The story of bodega dreams, written by Ernesto quinonez, shows the theme used by Willie bodega; do the ends justify the means? Even though the out come of the means were a positive result does that really make the means that the outcome was secured by the right way to go? Even the ethical issues of this problem are very great. In history many people’s lives have been taken or destroyed to improve others. Willie bodega sold drugs to fund his little community y to send children to college and help people pay bill. That might extreme but, things like seeing a coworker getting fired that could be some ones way of getting a promotion that they really deserve. The novel seems to suggest that to be successful you will at one point have the step on

Though Bodega is not the protagonist of the story there is a very fine line drawn of this character between the antagonist and the protagonist. Although initially the reader may see Bodega as against the protagonist’s ambitions the novel begins to reveal that Bodega has the same ambitions but attempts to attain them in a different manner. As a favor to Sapo for all of the things he did for Chino while they were growing up Chino agrees to do Sapo several favors throughout the novel, including meeting Bodega. Chino aspires to get an education and use it as a catalyst to escape the ghastly living conditions of the ghetto. Chino initially believes that to succeed in life he must first leave the ghetto. In order to leave the ghetto he goes to college to make enough money to provide a better living and environment for his wife, Blanca, and unborn child. In round three, Chino finally meets the infamous Bodega who few people get the opportunity to meet. Bodega shares with him his dream of a better community and a new Puerto Rican race that consists of an abundance of doctors, lawyers and business men and women. Though Bodega sold heroin to attain his own wealth and planned to use his drug money to better the neighbor hood and his people, he had reasoning for why he felt he was not wrong in the way he acquired his wealth. Bodega states, “Joe Kennedy was no different than me. He already had enough money in the twenties but he still became a rumrunner. Alcohol is a drug, right? Kennedy sold enough booze to kill a herd of rhinos. Made enough money from that to launch other, legal schemes. Years later he bought his kids the White House. Bought it. Yeah, he broke the law. But I get no recognition because I am no Joe Kennedy.”(Quinonez 25) this shows bodegas’ means of acquiring power and becoming the next main leader of the