Structure

The text “With His Own Two Hands” by Albert Garcia is a post-modernist short story structured around the identity conflict a Mexican-American boy experiences while growing up. The identity conflict is developed around Enrique’s relationship with his grandfather until the latter’s death.

Structurally, the story is constructed using fragmentation and flashback (the events are not chronological) while focusing on the character-narrator’s inner conflict, rather than the external plot.

Beginning

The story begins directly with a presentation of some of the characters, the first-person narrator’s grandparents. The presentation is conveyed in the past tense, which indicates that the story is told in retrospect (events took place in the past). The use of the past tense has a foreshadowing function, hinting at the fact that the grandparents have died by the time of the narration: “My grandparents used to take the train from South Texas to Los Angeles’ Union Station when they visited. They lived on a small farm outside El Paso1. They had chickens, goats and a horse...” (ll. 1-3)

The exposition offers a backstory on the grandfather’s background and the narrator’s relationship with him. From the first paragraphs we find out the narrator’s relationship with his grandfather went through different phases: “I loved staying up late to listen to stories of how he learned to play the guitar as a young boy…” (ll. 5-6); “…but as I grew older, I started to look at him differently. I started to feel embarrassed about having grandparents who had a horse but no car.” (ll. 8-9)

The exposition also introduces us to the identity conflict the narrator e...