Rudolfo Anaya grew up in the New Mexico and much of his work reflects this upbringing. A popular theme in his fiction is the background of the state and the introduction of factors that can lead to human destruction: greed, lust, self-righteousness, deception, and connivance (Garcia 2000, p. 11). His short story "The Apple Orchard" is not exception to this. This is the story about a young boy named Isador who is in seventh grade as he struggles to come of age in his community. The first-person narrator has a father who values education. The themes of education and its importance is integral in Chicano literature. According to Hector Colderon (1999), it is extremely difficult to finish education in the Hispanic community, particularly if English is not your first language. He says, "Out of some thirty-plus students, three of us graduated from high school on time, a few others had...
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