Manny Hernandez's Parrot In The Oven

Manny Hernandez gives a very genuine account of what it is like to grow up as a minority in a poor, dysfunctional home. He is tempted by many things such as the gang life, but at the same time, he thinks about what type of man he will become. Victor Martinez’s novel Parrot in the Oven explores the life of a Mexican teenage boy, Manny, who has a variety of factors that work against him at times. Receiving almost no real direction from his family, Manny battles with many problems and experiences in life. In Manny’s case there’s a huge influence in culture and race, which isn’t permitting many future opportunities such as education for him. This is how it was like every day for a boy like Manuel Hernandez. When you have a hard working

Sometimes it’s even one of them shooting the other and or getting into useless fights. “From the corner of his eye, he caught the dark clump of Mom running, and ran after her. When she disappeared behind a tree, he froze, shifting his knees, the barrel of the rifle alert and ready. For an instant I caught a glimpse of her tiptoeing away from a tree. Dad saw her too and banged on the bolt arm. She started with a jolt and began running again, ducking and dodging from tree to tree as Dad, frustrated with the loader because it wouldn't eat the bullet, and not wanting her to escape, pretended to lock a bullet in the chamber and level aim, stated in chapter 4, The Bullet, page 59-60. Every day Manny is experiencing new things and learning

Instead of learning Manny spends the day thinking about hot teachers. Education means a lot to Manny’s mother because she knows that getting a good education could make a huge difference in Manny’s life. Manny’s mother wanted him to go to a fancier school, because getting an education never hurt somebody and it could help the family out. “The next day, Mom began thinking about the future. She wanted me to go to a better school across town, where all the white kids got educated. So I grabbed the number 42 bus down Chandler Avenue, walked two blocks to the brown, ivy-rusted walls of my high school, and presented a note from my mom to Mrs. Kingsley, the secretary,” stated in chapter 3, Charity, page 37. In this poor town, schools as well as teachers don’t really care what students do with their education. On the other hand, Mr. Hart, Manny’s old history teacher is very passionate about his students and cares about the students’ long term life. For example, Mr. Hart was staring at Manny's beat-up old shoes during their whole conversation and he clearly just wants to make sure that Manny has what he needs to start school on the right foot. Education was a huge thing that could have gotten him on the right track, but because of the poverty and the careless teachers Manny unfortunately had something else that was holding him