Looking at The Theme of Lack of Schooling, Ignorance and Good Name in Victor Martinez Book Parrot in The Oven

Relations determine the way in which people feel about or behave toward each other. Take any problem in life and it will fall under relationships, money, and stress. However, there are more as well according to the book Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez, which are lack of education, lack of understanding, and reputation. My question to everybody is why people who are in relations don’t learn to compromise or think about others? In my opinion relations are very important, therefore they should be handled by caring about each other which would create less problems.

To keep up with setting a good image of yourself you cannot just make others think you’re good; you have to actually be good. Reputation could cause conflicts among the family if you pay more attention to that than your responsibilities.

There was a quote in the book which was “But you know how the welfare is”, Dad said “They want to know everything. A social worker comes over, acting like we’re criminals. Then the whole neighborhood knows we’re getting welfare.” (pg24). In this case the dad just cares about what others would think if he got a welfare job. Instead he should be thinking about his family that he needs to take care of.

In contrast to this a person like Manny’s dad doesn’t realize that when they ignore the importance of family, it makes their reputation worse. This explains how egoistic that person is. Often people end up recognizing that nothing is more important than family when they come across problems, that are not worth it.

Lack of understanding goes through everyone’s mind and at times it becomes hard to deal with. A quote that shows lack of understanding is “Bobby pins dangled from her half-finished curls. She knew dad was angry. She was just trying to blossom herself up, but dad didn’t understand that. He didn’t know how awful she felt about embarrassing him at the pool hall.” Only if Manny’s dada understood his wife’s feelings, then he wouldn’t have had to deal with the police. This shows that people like him in the world do not give others a chance to explain anything. All they do is try to get revenge and by doing that they think it will all be okay. Not many people know that if a person doesn’t know how to understand others, then they always overcome problems.

Furthermore, people who lack understanding become very stresses out. In other words knowing how others think is important since it would clear the misunderstanding between them. Everybody makes mistakes and says things in anger, but that doesn’t mean the other person should also get out of control.

There are a lot of people in real life who deal with lack of understanding which refers to them getting into fights and small arguments. All this mostly happens they don’t choose to solve their problems calmly; they worry more about proving themselves right. Situations become difficult when there is no support from either person or no one to guide them.

On the other hand lack of education becomes a problem in someone’s life too. What I mean is that lack of education leads to problems such as not having a good job and sometimes it’s very hard for someone to even get a job. Without education many people end up suffering just like Manny’s dad who ended up getting a welfare job, which is not bad, but it doesn’t help the family much. Besides being able to get a good job, people who lack education do not really know the right way to talk or a lot of knowledge. This makes them look bad, which relates to reputation.

A quote that demonstrates lack of education is “Dad didn’t say it because he thought I was dumb, but because I’d go right into the over trusting people all the way – brains or no brains.” This explains that some people trust things too easily, which they shouldn’t since you never know what’s right or wrong unless you’re really sure. In this case a lot of people could take advantage of others and they might not even realize. In my opinion education is extremely important because it could make your life better and easier when you’re aware of things.

When someone is in lack of money they are not able to get to do things that they need. In the book Magda was in need to go to the hospital, but she wasn’t able to go since the family did not have enough money to pay for the bills. I think that’s really sad since healthy is really important. If they are a terrible condition, then they should find a way to make things better.

There was a quote in the book which was “I shifted the shoe with the floppy tongue behind the other, regretting I’d worn them.” This quote shows how embarrassed Manny was when he wore his shoes. Lack of money could make someone feel very bad since they might not have good things like others. However, Manny’s father is responsible for his family’s condition since all he cared about was getting drunk; that was what he would spend all his money. Then on the other hand his family gets worse and so does the situations.

Stress is another reason why people become frustrated and end up not caring about anything. When people are stressed out they get tired of everything and feel like giving up. All this leads to even more conflicts among the family. Stress leads to depression, which is not good for anyone. Everything gets worse and hard to deal with since people only have problems on their mind. In other words they become off task.

An example would be “I always wondered why he got so tossed around by thins, why he’d roughen his voice and tire himself out complaining. (pg26). This shows how a person gets very worried about things, but can’t really do anything; all they do is complain and become aggravated. Moreover, they are tensed due to their conditions and the problems that they are already facing. However, they don’t know how to handle anything while they are stressed out since their mind is on so many other things.

Brings me back to my original point as to why people who are in relations don’t learn to compromise or think about others? People should be wise enough to make choice that would create less issue for them in the future. In other words they should be understanding and learn to think about others around them as well. They shouldn’t miss out on opportunities that could benefit them in the future. I would advise people to think positively, in order to earn something positive. It’s not so difficult once you recognize the choices that would be good for you an the choices that would be bad.