"Plum Plum Picker" by Raymond Barrios

 Cyntia Brunot
Ryan Gallagher
English 12 C.P
21 October 2010      

“Plum Plum Pickers” by Raymond Barrios

                                                                      In the passage Plum Pickers”, Raymond Barrios suggests that a social caste or system will affect a person’s view on life and how they react to certain situations. For example Manuel, am man who picks fruits on a field, is on the bottom of the social caste, while Roberto Morals and the white people are superior towards Manuel

                                                          In the beginning of “Plum Plum Pickers”, Manuel compares himself to a trapped animal in a field of apricot trees that remind him of “the blackest bars on the jails of hell” (91). Through this sentence Barrio viewed Manuel as an animal trapped by the superior and forced to work on this field. Another view is of this comparison is Manuel is treated as an animal, which puts him on the bottom of the social caste, because he’s not treated as an human being.

                       

                                        Later on in “Plum Plum Pickers” a man name Roberto Morales claims there was a miscalculation and needs to take two cents from every picker buckets. Taking two cents from Manuel was taking most of his hard earned money. This is another example of Raymond Barrio’s idea of a social caste while Roberto Morales and the white people live in a pain, carefree life, Manuel on the other hand must work twice as hard to survive. During the confrontation of Manuel and Roberto Morales, Raymond Barrio, describes this situation as animals in the jungle. Roberto Morales was studying Manuel’s weakness as if he was a predator and Manuel was a prey’s his idea of predator verses prey in other words the food chain connects to the main idea of the social caste within the environment Manuel has adapted to.

                                                         During the last paragraphs within “Plum Plum Pickers” Manuel finally has the courage to stand up for other more important stand up for him. This shows the downfall of the social system within his work environment. Manuel has had enough of brutality and abuse of power  from Roberto Morales and the superior white people and it has cause him to stand up for himself and has resulted to him standing up for others. Once the people who are label inferior to the superior on the social caste have had enough, the superior realized them to can climb to the top of the social caste system.