Coming of Age Theme Analysis

Under the Feet of Jesus centers around Estrella, a thirteen-year-old migrant laborer in California. Despite her young age, Estrella’s abundance of younger siblings and impoverished circumstances mean that she has to take on an adult role in her family. Estrella’s few typical teenage experiences, like her romance with Alejo (a teenager new to fieldwork), are fraught and short-lived; for her, becoming a woman means taking on more and more responsibilities, especially as Petra and Perfecto are unable to fulfill them. Yet while adulthood confers great responsibility, little agency comes with it, and Estrella is often frustrated by her inability to solve the many problems that arise. Ending with Estrella’s rooftop revelation that she’s both holding her family together and has little power to actually protect it, the novel meditates on the tragic circumstances of young people coming of age in a world that provides almost no opportunity to improve their circumstances.

Rather than enjoying her time as a teenager, Estrella has to take on responsibilities that have traditionally belonged to Petra and Perfecto. Estrella has always helped Petra with the housework, especially after her father’s abandonment. As Petra becomes sicker and more distracted, Estrella is more responsible for household tasks, and watches over the younger children while she’s working in the fields. Moreover, when Petra eventually becomes unable to work, Estrella becomes the family’s main economic support as well; at one point, Petra remarks that without Estrella, the family wouldn’t be able to eat, highlighting the transferal of responsibility and emphasizing the burden Estrella is now carrying.

Estrella also learns many elements of Perfecto’s trade and has to help him with many traditionally masculine tasks, such as tearing down the abandoned barn. Especially given that Perfecto is considering leaving the family, this behavior reflects the extent to which Estrella has to act as a mother and a father to her siblings.

At first, Estrella’s youthful romance with Alejo seems like a contrast to these weighty responsibilities; the scene in which they kiss each other’s palms in the fields reminds the reader that Estrella is in fact a teenager who should be exploring her own identity, rather than worrying about feeding her family. However, after Alejo grows ill, Estrella becomes responsible for him as well. For Estrella, coming of age is the process of becoming a caretaker to more and more people.

While she’s acquiring more responsibilities, Estrella realizes how powerless she is to truly protect those she loves. At the beginning of the novel, Estrella’s body appears strong and youthful; she hops over fences and wrestles with her brothers. However, after weeks of working in the fields she’s disturbed to find herself lacking energy and walking with a constant stoop; she can’t stand that her shadow looks like that of an old person. Estrella’s physical transformation shows her that she’s going to replace her parents as a precarious caretaker, rather than achieving greater security for her family.

Similarly, while Estrella is initially optimistic about curing Alejo’s mysterious illness, she’s startled and dismayed to find that Petra’s traditional methods are ineffective against it. Eventually, Alejo’s worsening state forces her to interact with the American medical system, which yields no results and in which she feels bullied and disregarded. Estrella’s feelings of responsibility for Alejo contrast with her inability to achieve anything concrete on his behalf.

The novel ends with two moments of extreme action and passivity, reflecting the clash between Estrella’s desire to care for her family and her newfound cognizance of her limited agency. When Estrella brings Alejo to the clinic, she has to interact with the nurse and make all the decisions, because her parents don’t speak English. Frustrated to be charged precious money for a useless visit, Estrella spontaneously grabs a crowbar and threatens the nurse until she returns the money. This action reflects Estrella’s burden of responsibility and even her optimism: she wouldn’t do something so drastic unless she believed that it could lead to a good outcome for Alejo. Here she contrasts starkly with Petra and Perfecto, who are jaded by a lifetime of disappointments and passively accept the dismal results of the clinic visit.

Despite her action and bravery, Estrella still has to leave Alejo at the hospital, with no assurances of his safety or their eventual reunification. In contrast with her behavior at the clinic, this moment signals her acceptance of her limited power. After returning home, she climbs to the roof of the barn and looks out over the land. Although she describes her “heart” as “powerful enough to summon home all those who strayed,” this is essentially a moment of passivity, in which she acknowledges that she can only hope for the best, rather than do anything to achieve it.

Though she’s coming of age under harsh circumstances, Estrella strives for optimism—even though she’s fully cognizant of her life’s hardships, she truly believes she can fix the problems facing her family. Tragically, Estrella’s retreat into passivity and inaction at the end of the novel argues that, for impoverished migrant children, a large part of growing up is relinquishing that sense of optimism and agency.