106 pages • 3 hours read
Francisco JiménezBreaking Through
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Together Again”
During their time of independent living in California, Francisco and Roberto try to brighten the barracks through the creative use of found materials, such as using left over linoleum to cover the kitchen floor and constructing a kitchen cabinet at shop class. They discipline themselves to continue their mother’s house cleaning routines. When their parents and siblings arrive by cab one day, the normally undemonstrative Papa kisses Francisco for the first time. Roberto emerges further as a secondary mature, nurturing father figure. Humble, uncomplaining and hard- working, he deflects parental praise regarding his construction of the cabinet by asking them about their experiences in Mexico.
Mr. and Mrs. Jiménez give both boys small gifts as tokens of gratitude for their financial assistance; Roberto receives a statue of Santo Nino de Atocha and Francisco receives a small bust of Jesus Christ to replace the chipped one found in the dump. While Francisco is touched by the model of the suffering Christ, the replication “[…] made [him] feel sad” (45). The gratitude felt by the brothers is mirrored by the appreciation of their parents, most particularly their mother.
Papa’s sternness as family patriarch is exemplified throughout the book. During this chapter, he notes that the youngest child, Trampita, was hit by a bus during their Mexican stay, noting that “He wasn’t paying attention […]” (45). This sternness is amplified as time goes on and Papa’s chronic back pain intensifies. He and Francisco have a very mild debate regarding Papa’s alleged “cure” by a Mexican curandera (healer). The process involved the use of incense, raw eggs and tea that was apparently drugged. Francisco engages his father in a “‘faith vs. science’ debate,” suggesting that none of these elements would have resulted in a diminishment of his father’s pain. When Roberto expresses traditional religious beliefs consistent with his father, Francisco asks “[…] how do we know he really exists?” (47). Despite this exchange regarding Francisco’s doubts about religion, he “[…] placed the bust of Jesus Christ under his pillow and fell asleep” (47).
Chapter 5 Summary: “Back to the Fields”
The conflicting pull of working in the fields and desire to do schoolwork continues to be an ongoing problem for Francisco. Much like the difference in outlook demonstrated by the religion-versus-science debate between Francisco and his father, there is a conflict regarding the boys’ penchant for rock ‘n’ roll, which is opposed to their father’s preference for Mexican music.
The idea of a conflict between loyalty versus the potential for economic achievement is demonstrated when Mr. Jiménez and a partner take a bank loan to start a small strawberry farm. Although Mr. Jiménez is very interested in pursuing this opportunity, he remains loyal to Ito, his sharecropper employer, who had sponsored him to enter the country. Essentially a moral man, Papa decides to work for Ito six days per week and to function as a sharecropper on Sundays and evenings; Francisco, with the exception of the school day, puts in the same number of hours as his father. The author notes that, “During that time, I barely kept up with my schoolwork” (51).
Jiménez does not romanticize the brutal difficulties involved in farm work, including the physical pain and dependence upon random acts of nature. A form of blight destroys most of the strawberry plants, and an effort to fumigate the strawberry patch is later found to have been overly toxic, and kills all the strawberries. Francisco notes that “From that day on, Papa’s spirit began to die” (53). He experiences chronic back pain, becomes depressed and angry, and is almost completely silent in the household. His dominion over the family is complete; he rarely gives the boys permission to go out to socialize on Saturday nights. When Francisco is slightly clipped in his answer regarding permission to attend the Saturday Night Vets Dance, his father states that disrespect is forbidden in the home. Roberto, the more acquiescent of the two siblings, is allowed to attend, while Francisco is not.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Saint Christopher Medal”
Although Francisco grieves the loss of the strawberry farm, his own life improves drastically when it becomes defunct. He is able to remain competitive with Marjorie Ito in Math class, and he scores a 99% on a U.S. Constitution test. Faced with an initially overwhelming research project, he writes a fantasy about himself and his brothers exploring the solar system, and he receives an “A+” on the project. Conversely, there still exist wide cultural areas which the boy struggles to understand, such as the concept of an Open House at school. When his science teacher, Mr. Milo, expresses regret that Mr. and Mrs. Jiménez had not attended the event, Francisco is “[…] more confused when he said he missed meeting my parents on that evening” (57).
Francisco is thrilled on the day of his graduation from middle school, and he washes with Fab Detergent and Ajax in order to remove the ever-present strawberry stains from his hair and hands. As Francisco prepares to leave the house to participate in his graduation ceremony, he experiences a memorable moment with his father. Curmudgeonly and critical at times, Papa is truly a multifaceted personality who is capable of great generosity and affection. He splashes some of his Old Spice aftershave lotion on Francisco’s face, and then gives him his own Saint Christopher medal as a graduation gift. In a poignant moment, Francisco notices that Papa’s back pain causes him to rise from a chair slowly, and that the chain holding the medal “[…] had left a white ring around his sunburned neck” (59). Both observations are manifestations of Papa’s long life of physical labor. As Francisco finally receives his eighth-grade diploma, he imagines his parents sitting next to his older brother, Roberto, in the audience.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
The themes of self- sufficiency and autonomy resonate throughout the description of the domestic lives that Roberto and Francisco lead in California while awaiting the return of their parents and siblings from Mexico. Unusually mature adolescents, the boys leave the house “perfectly clean” (43) each day prior to leaving for school and late afternoon jobs. They are creative in their efforts to decorate cheerfully with salvaged bits of linoleum scraps and a cabinet constructed in a high-school shop class, demonstrating their internalization of parental models, as their parents used scavenged items to enhance the daily lives of their family.
The author uses the device of simile to describe the doors of the cab that brings his family back to the converted barracks as opening “like the petals of a flower” (43). Mama is quoted as using a similarly constructed comparison when she comparison when she compares the carpentry skills used by Roberto in constructing the cabinet as being “Like St. Joseph” (44). Even the normally undemonstrative Papa kisses Francisco’s forehead upon their reunion, “[…] the first kiss he had ever given me” (43).
The family is religious and spiritual, yet the dichotomy between the concepts of science and faith is raised as Francisco expresses logic-based cynicism regarding Papa’s narrative regarding his chronic back pain having been cured by a Mexican healer who uses raw eggs and a bitter, sleep-inducing tea during this process; sadly, the “cure” is quite temporary. Conversely, the boy is thrilled and deeply touched when his parents present him with a small bust of Jesus Christ, and his brother with a statue of Santa Nino de Atocha, in gratitude for the money which the boys had sent to them in Mexico.
Despite the essentially loving, close-knit nature of this family, cultural conflicts permeate the story, such the boys’ preference for rock ‘n’ roll over their father’s favorite Mexican music; Papa’s frequent refusal to allow them to leave the house on Saturday nights, in order to socialize; and Papa’s inability to tolerate even respectful dissenting opinions expressed by his teenaged sons. The older man’s strong work ethic leads to his agreement to take a bank loan in order to purchase a small strawberry farm with a partner, despite his chronic back pain and the added work that will result. The blight that destroys the crop mirrors the deterioration of Papa’s physical and mental health; in fact, Papa feels that he has been cursed. The family, especially Mama, suffers as a result of his mercurial moods, which range from rage to acts of generosity. Specifically, while exerting an iron rule over his sons’ social lives, Papa gives his beloved St. Christopher medal to Francisco as a graduation gift, and surreptitiously helps the boy to win berry-picking contests against the older and stronger Roberto. During a rare moment of rest from field work, Papa regales Francisco with stories of having been imprisoned for six months in a Mexican prison in 1926. This date would coincide with the Cristero Revolt, the last major peasant uprising in Mexico, which opposed the anticlerical policies of the government during that time period.
The author does not romanticize the physical repercussions endured by pickers working in the field, and he alludes to the physical pain, exhaustion, and dirt so thick that only abrasive laundry detergent presents an effective agent for bathing. The concept of one’s body, clothing and personal odor being stained by strawberries, both literally and figuratively, is alluded to frequently. As Papa advises Francisco, “If you smell like me, nobody will want to get near you” (59). The impact of strawberries upon the financial and emotional well-being of the Jimenez family cannot be overemphasized. Francisco is filled with the anxiety and fear that accompany his constant feeling that the family lives on the brink of financial disaster, and these emotions stand in constant, stark juxtaposition to the generally benign emotional atmosphere within the group.
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