El Mendigo del Mendios y Mimado Chiflado con Oliver Twist

Yesterday, while doing a lecture on why one should study serious literature, two characters were born, Mendigo del Mendios and Mimado Chiflado.

As I explained to students the differences between popular and serious literature, I searched for examples of "depth of character," or characters who struggle with the human condition. We spoke much on the popularity of Harry Potter, and read an article by Harold Bloom showing how Harry doesn't really struggle much in his cozy middle-class life.

In contrast, I tried to explain the need for a character to engage in the human condition in a way that is relevant to students who may not have read the Potter series. I conjured up the memory of a little boy in Matamoros who is taught to beg, lie and steal from a very young age. Sometimes he sells chicle to lure them in; other times, he approaches tourists and pretends to be destitute, eliciting sympathy for money. (I remember encountering children like this on occasions, when I used to go to Mexico to Garcia's restaurant.)

In this improvised story, I told students about how Mendigo is taught to lie to people and to expect others to take care of him, especially and including his older brother, a bad youth who bullies him into doing these heinous things.

One day, however, Mendigo comes across a nun, perhaps at a soup kitchen. She sees what he's going through and feels pity for him. She sees past the lies and tells him that he needs to learn to read. So, she finds a way to bring him to her parish, begins teaching him how to read, and becomes a quasi-surrogate mother to him. As the boy finds ways of sneaking away from his older brother and stays with the nun, he grows in his new literacy via the redemptive power of true charity; he begins to acquire language, which causes him to reflect.

One day, while in the safety of a church van, he drives past the city trash dump, where he sees his brother and their friends sifting through detritus, looking for scraps. He thinks about the resonating words his mentor has planted inside. While a tear runs down his cheek, she places her hand on his, snapping him out of the cold spell. He begins to realize he must crawl out of that crab pit, that he must learn to believe in himself, and continue to think and reflect. With the nuns help, he enrolls in a U.S. school and undergoes an intellectual growth spurt.

And, yet, to emphasize the fact that the human condition not only applies to those at the bottom of a social class, those who struggle with economic forces, it also applies to the affluent, the other character of this story was born, Mimado Chiflado.

This little boy grew up in one of the nearby country clubs. His parents have taught him that the only way they prove to him that they love him is by buying him everything he wants. For example, one day, he demanded a new gaming system for his birthday. Because his parents didn't get him the one with the correct colors, he threw a fit and refused to play it.

As the two boys go about their daily lives, they happen to come across one another, perhaps on the first day of school. They attend St. Joseph's Catholic School, one on scholarship, the other on paid tuition. In this meeting, they realize they look very much alike. So, after a brief conversation, they decide to switch places, the poor boy to see what it's like to live comfortably, the rich boy to see what it's like to be truly loved. Yes, I know this sounds like Twain's "Prince and the Pauper," but I add a Dickensian twist to it to make it multidimensional.

As the two boys switch places, the rich boy happens across one of the poor boy's old beggar boys and his older brother who taught him to lie, cheat and steal. The Beggar Boys are illiterate, so they don't have much depth of thought. When the rich boy enters the poor boy's world, the older brother abducts him and takes him to the Beggar Boys' Den (a veritable den of thieves), where he and the other older boys bully him into pulling a dangerous job, much like in Dicken's Oliver Twist.

Anyway, the overall point of these two characters is to illustrate the need for characters to engage in struggles that change them, that force them to reflect. If a story only moves through action and plot, it most likely is meant for entertainment only. If characters have to struggle to resolve conflicts, then most likely the literary text should be respected, it should be "looked at again and taken seriously."