Efrén Divided

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2020

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-19

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 17-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 17 Summary

Apá tells Efrén first: Amá is detained after being discovered at the San Clemente checkpoint—the same checkpoint that was mercifully closed both ways the day before on Apá’s and Efrén’s trip to Tijuana. Apá must break the news to the twins; Efrén tries not to cry. Apá offers cake, then the comforting head scratches Amá is so good at. Max accepts and Mia allows Efrén to do the same. After the twins eventually sleep, Efrén wants to focus on the next attempt at getting Amá home: “I can start collecting water bottles and taking them to the recycling center” (229). Apá reassures Efrén that he will never give up trying but says that this time is different: “Your Amá is being detained. I don’t know what’s going to happen” (229). Efrén cries at the unfairness, and Apá holds him.

Chapter 18 Summary

The next morning, Efrén readies the twins and takes them to school. He experiences a rush of emotion when he sees Ms. Solomon and tells her the truth. Ms. Solomon can only respond with a hug for the twins, then she adds Efrén too. On his way to school, Efrén plans to resign from the election and resolves to avoid emotional breakdowns the rest of the day, which means keeping away from David. He uses a few spare minutes to complete The House on Mango Street, focusing on main character Esperanza’s desire for change.

In Mr. Garrett’s class, Efrén is shocked when Jennifer returns. He rushes to be partners with her for a class activity and asks how she managed to come back. Jennifer explains that through the Fair Tomorrow Program, she can apply to attend a private boarding school; Ms. Salas arranged to serve as her foster parent and will help her apply. Jennifer says she cannot run for president because the makeup work and application will be her priorities. She is excited that Efrén is running, but he tells her he plans to resign.

After class, Efrén and his classmates discover that his campaign posters are vandalized; one says “Deport Efrén Nava Non resident” (239). Abraham tells Efrén that the security guard caught David as the one “messing” with the posters. Efrén heads to the office, wondering how his best friend of so many years could have done it. David is already there. They do not speak; the tension is thick. The principal, Mrs. Carey, says that David was in fact caught tearing down the posters, but was not the one who defaced them with the slurs. Efrén feels awful for thinking the worst of David.

Chapter 19 Summary

Efrén finds David, initiates a handshake, and thanks him for taking the vandalized posters down. Efrén tells David he intends to quit the race, but David’s new plan is to promote Efrén’s presidency and run as his vice president instead. He also reveals that he now knows about Amá from his grandmother. He hugs Efrén in support and recalls how Amá often mothered him. They “laugh-cry” together.

When Jennifer and Han approach, they want to know how to handle the vandalized posters. Efrén thinks about the Muro and the children who only see their deported parents through the bars. He knows he cannot give up and will not concede to a life spent without Amá. He tells his friends, “I can start a campaign to educate parents. Let them understand their rights. You guys will help me, right?” (247-48). They agree, and Efrén tears his resignation letter. He knows he must now be “Soper” like his parents and allow the seeds of hope and change to grow.

Chapters 17-19 Analysis

Efrén shows his remarkable empathy and maturity in the moment Apá hangs up the phone. Instead of asking when or if Amá is still coming home (a natural question for a child), he chooses to ask, “Is she okay?” (226). Efrén sees that Apá cannot bring himself to speak without a prompt, and so he offers the words that allows Apá to focus on the most important thing: “She’s safe” (226). Efrén tries impressively to keep his emotions in check for the sake of the twins, like Apá, even voluntarily offering the piojitos (head scratches) that remind them all of Amá. Despite Efrén’s tremendous maturation over the course of the story, he ends the day in tears. This strong juxtaposition to his hope-filled morning establishes new questions for the falling action of the novel: Without a new plan on which to fall back, and—for the first time in the story—without any immediate hope of getting Amá home, what does Efrén do now?

Mentor Lalo already instructed him on the answer, which Apá reiterates: Make do. For Efrén, this means school and caring for the twins. Efrén, however, is also inspired by a last-minute Mentor in the story: Esperanza, the main character of Jennifer’s—and now Efrén’s as well—favorite book, The House on Mango Street. Esperanza is not content to accept Mango Street in its current state as a part of her. Her desire for change speaks to Efrén; he “lock[s] onto every word” (234). The end of the story and Esperanza (a name that means “hope”) gives Efrén a new seed of optimism. The actions of his friends, old (David) and new (Jennifer and Han), convince him to allow that optimism to take root. He will serve his school as president and already has ideas for how to begin tackling “the change he want[s] to see” (248).

Efrén does not get Amá back by the end of the story, so the conflict is not resolved in a traditional plot triangle sense. Instead, the conflict itself transcends into its own resolution for Efrén, not in terms of an answer or solution to the problem but in a promise to himself, to Amá, to his family, and to others suffering family separation. He vows to continue to make do with his family tasks while beginning a new quest of change.