Approaching adulthood, adolescents are often eager to establish an identity for themselves. For the outcasts, this process is even more difficult because the public’s perceived identification of them is what sets them apart in the first place. Eric, or Erica, a character in the short story “The Brothers” in Lysley Tenorio’s Monstress, displays the struggles of an outcast approaching adulthood. He is a transsexual living in America during the 20th century with a disapproving, Filipino family. In her attempt to show the world what she is truly made of, she wrestled through life morphing into the person she’s always wanted to be by undergoing sex change. In the short story, “The Brothers”, the Santo Nino helps us better understand Erica and her
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The broken Santo Nino symbolize Erica’s dead body. Before Erica’s death, she struggled to live life as a transsexual; society made fun of transgenders like her, and her family rejected her. Erica was, therefore, living a chaotic life before her death just as the Santo Nino was in a state of chaos as she and her brother fought over it before it fell broken on the floor. On the other hand, the Santo Nino statue is just like the shell of an egg. After the shell cracks open, a new living form emerges. Likewise, the first Santo Nino was replaced with a second Santo Nino that looks more like a girl (36), just as Erica as a transgender emerged after breaking away from her old masculine appearance. Following the sex change, Erica blossomed into a woman and her transformation depicts Lysley Tenorio’s illustration of a Monstress …show more content…
Edmond describes Santo Nino when readers first encounter it in the short story: “For the first time, I saw how he was made: only the hands and face had been painted to look like skin; everywhere was unglazed white, chipped in spots” (Tenorio 36). Edmond’s description reflects the idea of the Santo not being fully human as it appears. The Santo Nino, with its painted skin appears partly beautiful, while its “unglazed white, chipped in spots” (Tenorio 36) makes it partly ugly just like a monster. Like all other characters in the book, she was initially unhappy, but after having achieved transformation, she satisfied her heart’s
The broken Santo Nino symbolize Erica’s dead body. Before Erica’s death, she struggled to live life as a transsexual; society made fun of transgenders like her, and her family rejected her. Erica was, therefore, living a chaotic life before her death just as the Santo Nino was in a state of chaos as she and her brother fought over it before it fell broken on the floor. On the other hand, the Santo Nino statue is just like the shell of an egg. After the shell cracks open, a new living form emerges. Likewise, the first Santo Nino was replaced with a second Santo Nino that looks more like a girl (36), just as Erica as a transgender emerged after breaking away from her old masculine appearance. Following the sex change, Erica blossomed into a woman and her transformation depicts Lysley Tenorio’s illustration of a Monstress …show more content…
Edmond describes Santo Nino when readers first encounter it in the short story: “For the first time, I saw how he was made: only the hands and face had been painted to look like skin; everywhere was unglazed white, chipped in spots” (Tenorio 36). Edmond’s description reflects the idea of the Santo not being fully human as it appears. The Santo Nino, with its painted skin appears partly beautiful, while its “unglazed white, chipped in spots” (Tenorio 36) makes it partly ugly just like a monster. Like all other characters in the book, she was initially unhappy, but after having achieved transformation, she satisfied her heart’s