Abuela Invents The Zero Analysis

People throughout the world are not born perfect, yet most grow up to be people that have good values and ethics. People do not learn all ethics and values from their parents or teachers. Instead, literature teaches them through the characters’ experiences that some may not have or cannot have experienced. In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Judith Cofer Ortiz’s “Abuela Invents the Zero” the protagonists face many situations which change them no matter how they respond. Because of the characters response in certain situations they change constantly, and these changes make them value their families and important assets.
Tom Sawyer who was a very neglecting person comes to be someone who becomes more caring, which is a characteristic that many people do not think Tom has. Tom stealthily went back to his house after Huck, Joe and he were claimed missing, Tom “was sufficiently touched by his aunt’s grief to ... overwhelm her with joy” (Twain 145). Tom never cared deeply for Aunt Polly because she was an annoyance to him. However, seeing Aunt Polly sad, Tom changes into a person who is not as …show more content…
Constancia, after embarrassing her mother “understand[s] how [she] made [her] Abuela feel” (Ortiz 3). Caring for her relatives is something new to Constancia and now she has morphed into a completely new person. Now that she has changed, she now values her grandma and with that, the traditions she was always embarrassed of. She also thought of “a number [she] hadn’t thought much about—until [that day]” (Ortiz 3). Referring to the number zero, Constancia realizes that a person’s pride is one of the best assets a person owns. As she has changed to value her grandma and traditions, she also comes to value her grandma’s and her family’s pride. Crucial situations that took place in Constancia’s life, forced her to react, change and