Miguel Chico Character Analysis

Doubts. We all have them: fears, weaknesses, and insecurities. They both protect us and restrain us from reaching our potentials. Miguel Chico's doubts in his family, and their religion leave him unable or unwilling to connect to either of them, although he is drawn to both of them. The duality of Maria's great ability for joy and her refusal to experience it after becoming a Seventh Day Adventist distances Miguel Chico from both religion and his family. Miguel Chico is deeply attached to Maria as a child. She has always been a part of his life, so much that he "could not remember a time when Maria was not a part of the family (15).When Miguel Chico is a child, Maria plays with him, takes him to mass, praises him and scolds him. She practically raises him, and she has extraordinary influence over him. When she tells him his mother will die, he "believed Maria" (19). Miguel Chico trusts her completely, believing her through his fear. Maria is one of the most important figures in Miguel Chico's childhood, and he felt closer to her than possibly any other adult around him.
When she becomes a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Maria "begins putting up her hair, giving her a severe look he [Miguel Chico] did not like, and he missed those mornings when she let her hair hang loosely on her waist and brushed or dried it in the sun, his head on her lap." (19). Although Maria is still there, to Miguel Chico, part of her is gone The fact that religion took away the Maria he knew is instilled in Miguel Chico, and he begins to question all forms of religion. He is devastated when she is sent away, feeling "an awful loneliness when he thought about her hair and her eyes" (20). He misses her, resents her, and feels guilty. Rather then openly missing Maria, he ignores her completely, taking no responsibility for the loss he is