Oscar Casares Chango Conflict

Oscar Casares’ “Chango” takes place in the border city of Brownville, Texas. The main character, Bony, is a middle aged man who lives with his parents, is unemployed, and is overall not progressing in a normal way as dictated by society. Bony finds a monkey’s head, “Chango”, close to his house and seems to feel a connection with the object causing him to keep it. His parents, who do not approve of his lifestyle, are resistant to the monkey head and want him to get rid of it but Bony instead runs off with Chango showing him different parts of town and sharing memories with him. Throughout the story Bony remembers his best friend, Mando, who had died in a car wreck at a young age and this event is the cause of Bony’s unproductivity and his connection …show more content…
This is shown in the fact that years have passed since Mando’s death but throughout the story Bony keeps recalling memories of him. It is also conveyed when he is unable to play with Mando’s son because the grief is too much for him: “playing with him made Bony miss his friend” (Casares 12). This main conflict is important to the central idea because his struggle inhibits his progress in life. The resolution to this conflict is when Bony finally gets over his grief by symbolically dropping Chango into the water. The secondary conflict in this story is the external conflict between Bony and his parents. This is shown in how Bony’s parents keep urging him to become employed and act like an adult: “Why do I even try to talk sense to you?” (Casares 8). This conflict is important to the central idea because the resistance towards his parents shows the refusal Bony has to growing …show more content…
This is shown in the story by the fact that the narrator only shows what Bony is thinking. For example, in the arguments Bony has with his parents over Chango the reader understands the connection Bony feels with the monkeys head but can only guess as to why his parents are so insistent in him getting rid of it (Casares 15). This is important to the story and the central idea because the reader can see the childish perspective Bony has toward life which is a reason as to why he cannot yet grow up and enter the adult world. This point of view is also important to character because Bony’s thoughts and feeling lends him to become a round and dynamic character. This is seen at the end of the story when Bony’s perspective changes after noticing that he had replaced Mando with Chango and thus sees the reality of life: “The water was browner and greener than he remembered” (Casares