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Under the Wire
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Circuit, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Change and Instability
Immigrants, Discrimination, and Injustice
Childhood vs. Adulthood
Family and Community
Summary
Analysis
When Papá, Mamá, and Roberto, go to work in the fields picking cotton, they leave Francisco behind in the car with his little brother, Trampita, who is just six months old. Francisco hates this, and one morning, he cries after they leave. Later, when Trampita wakes up, cold and hungry, Francisco gives him his bottle and wraps him up in a blanket.
Francisco, who is only around four or five years old in this story, oversees his infant brother’s care while the rest of the family goes to work. This shows how hard-pressed the family is for money, and also shows how lonely they are in the United States, since they have no friends or family to help them with childcare. Still, Francisco seems to be doing a reasonably good job of caring for his baby brother, which shows that even at a young age, Francisco is a responsible and loving brother to his siblings.
Themes
Hours later, Francisco sees his parents and Roberto heading back toward the car for their lunch break. They spread a blanket on the ground and eat together while Mamá nurses Trampita. Papá eats quickly because he doesn’t want to lose any time from work—but Roberto and Francisco eat as slowly as they can, because they don’t want this time to end.
Though Francisco and Trampita are separated from the rest of the family for much of the day, they all come together whenever possible. The communal scene of them eating together suggests warmth and love. While Papá seems stressed and can’t wait to get back to work so he can earn more money, Roberto and Francisco are still children who don’t share his sense of responsibility and would rather spend time with each other.
Themes
After lunch, Francisco’s family returns to the field to work. Francisco decides that he will try and pick some cotton himself, to prove to Papá that he, too, is capable of the work. He desperately wants to join his family on the fields, so that he won’t be left alone with Trampita. Francisco heads to the cotton plants nearest to the car and tries to pick some cotton bolls. The shells scratch his hands, making them bleed, and he struggles to reach the bolls that are too high up. By the end of the day, Francisco has only managed to pick a disappointingly small pile of cotton, so he mixes some dirt in it to make the pile look bigger.
Francisco is a little child, but he yearns to be treated as older and more mature. However, he quickly discovers that he is protected from many hardships because he is a child. The sharp shells of the cotton bolls represent the difficulties that Papá, Mamá, and Roberto deal with every day while Francisco—for the time being, at least—is safe from them. His hands are unbruised, which shows that he doesn’t yet understand how harsh their world of manual labor is.
Themes
At dusk, Francisco’s family returns from the fields, and Mamá immediately asks Francisco how Trampita is doing. She discovers that the baby has soiled himself, dropped his bottle, and cried himself to sleep—Francisco was so busy picking cotton that he forgot all about Trampita. Mamá is angry that Francisco neglected the baby, but when Francisco proudly shows her the pile of cotton he picked, Papá can’t help but smile.
Mamá leaves her infant in Francisco’s care when she goes to work, and she is clearly stressed out by this arrangement. Francisco, however, doesn’t understand her feelings or the seriousness of the responsibility he is entrusted with—as a child, he is most concerned about his own happiness.
Themes
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However, Papá becomes angry when he sees the dirt clods that Francisco mixed in with the cotton, and he tells Francisco that they could all get fired for doing something like this. He tells Francisco that he should focus on taking care of Trampita. Francisco is hurt; he whispers to Roberto that someday, he, too, will be able to go work in the fields with them. Roberto nods and puts his arm around Francisco.
Since Francisco is still very young, he doesn’t understand the serious consequences his family might have to face because of even a minor lapse in the quality of their work. As undocumented immigrants, they work very hard but are paid little, and the farmers they work for consider them to be easily replaceable. Papá is too mired in these worries to have any sympathy for Francisco’s hopeful attempt to impress him. However, Roberto, who is a child himself even though his circumstances have forced him to grow up too quickly, understands Francisco’s feelings.
Themes
