Cisneros' Essay

Cisneros' essay, Salvador Late or Early, explores the complexities of a young boy's life. Cisneros explains the intricacy of her character through her word choice and syntax. Salvador is a complicated individual because of his daily activities and responsibilities. For a developing child, he is enduring jobs that are not those of his age group. The context is very descriptive, and Cisneros' use of simple language makes her story vapid, yet alluring.

Cisneros' simple word usage intrigues readers because usually, to explain complexity, writers use colorful vocabulary to enhance the reader's experience, whereas, Cisneros' vocabulary is simplistic, which contradicts Salvador's complex life; "Salvador, late or early, sooner or later arrives with the string of younger brother ready...Tugs the arms of Cecilio, Arturito, makes then hurry, because today, like yesterday, Arturito has dropped the cigar box of crayons..." Salvador must take his brothers to school every day, and the same event occurs as the other days. It would be simpler to avoid this occurrence, but he does not, making Salvador's life complex. Simple words convey the contradiction between words and mortality, and essentially, spices up the protagonists' complexity.

Cisneros' writing style is very creative. The relevance of her sentence structure is to give the reader a unique perspective of her explanation of Salvador's complexity. Cisneros exercises a massive amount of prepositions and predicates because it is attractive to read and explicates Salvador's complex life; "...runs along somewhere in that vague direction where homes are the color of bad weather, lives behind a raw wood door, shake the sleepy brothers awake, ties their shoes, combs their hair with water, feeds them milk and cornflakes from a tin cup in the dim dark of the morning." Salvador is too young to have such responsibilities. Although his mother has to worry about an infant, his brothers and him are still her responsibility. Moreover, the continuous use of this style of language intensifies her essay, and essentially, the complexity of Salvador.

Furthermore, Cisneros' mild language simulates Salvador's complex life. Although florid terminology could have amplified her essay, simple words strengthened and portrayed the life of Salvador successfully. Cisneros' style was different and was expressed very well. Her syntax, an identifiable run on sentence, backboned Salvador's complexity, and her vocabulary usage vivified a contradiction between simplicity and complexity.