Title: Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Type of Conflict: Character vs. Society
Part 2: Conflict Timeline
Esperanza enjoys a privileged life with her family in Mexico.
Esperanza's father is killed by bandits, and her family is forced to flee to California.
Esperanza and her mother struggle to adapt to their new life as farmworkers and face discrimination from both the other workers and the landowners.
Esperanza becomes involved in a strike to demand better wages and working conditions for the workers.
Esperanza and her mother are threatened and attacked by strikebreakers hired by the landowners.
Esperanza and her family ultimately prevail in the strike, but they face continued challenges and uncertainties in their new life.
Part 3: Perspective Paragraph
In Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan, the protagonist, Esperanza, faces the main conflict of adapting to life as a poor farmworker in California after her privileged upbringing in Mexico. Esperanza's perspective is one of frustration and anger at the unfair treatment she receives from both the other workers and the landowners. She thinks, "Why did they always treat us like animals?...We did the same work as they did, sometimes even better, but they still made fun of us and whispered under their breath" (Ryan, p. 46). Esperanza's experiences and observations have led her to feel that she and her fellow workers are being unjustly exploited and oppressed. On the other hand, the antagonist in this conflict, represented by the landowners and other wealthy people who benefit from the current system, believes that they are entitled to their wealth and that the workers should be grateful for the opportunity to work. As Esperanza's mother notes, "To them, we are like the rats that only come out at night" (Ryan, p. 69). This quote shows how the landowners view the workers as inferior and unworthy of respect or fair treatment. In conclusion, Esperanza and the landowners have very different perspectives on the main conflict of the novel, with Esperanza feeling that the workers are being unjustly treated and the landowners feeling entitled to their wealth and power.