Characters

The main character of the short story “The Somebody” by Danny Santiago is Chato. His mother and father also appear in the story, but they are relevant only for the way in which Chato relates to them. The same goes for Mr. Calderon and the mysterious girl nicknamed Crusader Rabbit. In what follows, we will only look at Chato’s character and we will analyze him in connection to the characters we have mentioned.

Chato

Chato is the protagonist of the story and a flat character, as he does not change or develop throughout the action. Even though he has high hopes and dreams, they are actually very immature and unrealistic, which is exactly how Chato is from the very beginning.

Outer characterization

His outer characterization is offered by the protagonist himself, who gives detailed explanations about his looks: “I write Chato, which means Catface, because I have a flat nose like a cat.”

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Inner characterization

Chato’s inner characterization is revealed from the way he behaves and the ideas he expresses.

First of all, Chato comes across as an idealist because he is very optimistic about the future: “… and I want you to know this is a big day in my life because today I quit school and went to work as a writer.”

From his father’s reactions upon hearing that Chato wants to quit school, we find out that the teenager once wanted to become a lawyer and a doctor. However, his past dreams are now left aside. Chato’s main concern is to leave his house and family and become famous: “"I'm checking out of this dump! You'll never see me again!"”

From his interactions with his father, we realize that Chato does not like the man. He wants “no part of him” and he seems to dislike the fact that the man is always grumpy and ironic when it comes to him: “I hollered in at him, but already he was in the kitchen making a big noise in his coffee. I could be dead and he wouldn't take me serious. So I laid there and waited for him to go off to work.”

When it comes to his mother, Chato is clearly disgusted by her. He hates the fact that the woman is constantly having babies and – although he is not vocal about it – we can deduce that he dislikes her lack of concern with him. This is why Chato always takes revenge on one of his siblings when nobody is paying attention:

(…) but nobody passes any comments on the dirty way babies act or the dirty way there were made either. Sometimes my mother asks me to hold one for her but it always cries, maybe because I squeeze it a little hard when nobody's looking.
When my mother finally served me, I had to hold my breath, she smelled so bad of babies. I don't care to look at her anymore.

Overall, from his relationship with his parents, it becomes clear that Chato seems to be on his own, mostly ignored because he is the older one and does not need to be permanently tended to.

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