"Three Hundred Pesos:" Story Analysis

Biography
Manuela Williams Crosno (1950 - 1977) lived most of her life in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  She really liked that state, and living right there was her inspiration and the setting for her stories. All of them happened in and around Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Taos. She was interested in Spanish culture and then, she made up her mind to write about what happened one hundred years back. Furthermore, Crosno taught English for a living. So to speak, she was so quite good at writing that she won First Prize in a statewide writing contest.  

Summary

The story told us about a countryman called “Anastacio Perea” whose two siblings were named “Emilio Perea and Berta”. He was a miser due to he wished he would have had three hundred pesos to own a store. When his siblings were actually in need, he refused to help them out at all times. In the end, he was able to collect all the money he required to start it down, but it was just used to pay for his funeral. 

Plot Analysis 

Conflict: Anastacio just wanted to get three hundred pesos to start his own store.

Rising actions:

• Emilio Perea showed up visiting her sister.
• Emilio asked Anastacio for one peso to buy some medicine.
• There was a terrible storm that night and Anastasia’s cornfield was destroyed.
• Anastacio planted his corn once again.
• Berta asked him for some money to make her house’s repairs.
• He discovered his cornfield had been ruined by a flock of wandering sheep.
• He decided to plant pinto beans.

Climax: When he left for the village to sell the pinto beans, he had an accident. 

Resolution: Even though he got all the money, he lastly passed away, and three hundred pesos were only used for giving him a nice funeral. 

Characterization

Character	Physical and psychological features
Anastacio Perea	He was the protagonist. He was a lonesome, hardworking, egotistic, greedy and unfeeling countryman who just thought to himself. He did not even care about the others as long as making his dream come true.                                                                ..
Emilio Perea	He was a secondary character. He was an open-hearted, poor, kind, hardworking, not go-getter countryman that had a cornfield too. In addition, he was not married and did not have any children, but took care of Pedro.
Berta Perea	She was also a secondary character. She was a generous, obliging, kind-hearted, caring, helpful, poor, conformist, independent, humble, thin and frail countrywoman.

The teaching of the story

The story taught us an important life lesson, which was:  "Being a good person and helping the others in need" It showed us that we must not be as Anastacio who refused to help people and especially to his family in need. The money is important to live every day, but it is not everything in life. Also, Happiness cannot be bought by it. If you’re too greedy and you hold on tightly to money, you will probably end up all alone and with nothing. 

My opinion

I think that the story is very interesting because we can learn a significant real-life lesson. All of us sometimes forget to think about helping people or relatives who really need a hand to get ahead. We only concentrate in order to get to our “Happiness” and do not see beyond our eyes. Being a nice person and giving a little bit of what God has shared with us are some important aspects to feel better about ourselves.   

José Pablo Corrales P.

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