Roque

In the short story, Roque, by Dagoberto Gilb, we would guess that the protagonist most likely would be the person named Roque, which is an adult, but it really is the little boy named Erick. Erick is just a little boy who pretty follows his mom to every guy’s house that she dates and he listens to whatever she says. He doesn’t talk to any of the guys his mom brings home or to anyone else, his mom likes to say that it’s because of his English, but he just doesn’t say much. Roque is the man who his mom is dating, but Erick told his friend that Roque was his uncle because he had already said that a rich engineer was his new stepdad. Roque is an important character because he is the one who takes Erick to his first baseball game, which is the most important setting in the story.

The climatic moment in the story is when they arrive to the baseball game and Erick catches the home run ball. This is the first time that he goes to a game and right away, before they even sit down, he catches it. The way he explains it, makes it sound like it was destiny, “the fifth inning? That’s how late they were. Or were they right on time, because they weren’t even sure they were sitting in the right seats yet when he heard the crack of the ball, saw the crowd around them rising as it came at them. Erick saw the ball. He had to stand and move and stretch his arms and want that ball until it hit his bare hands and stayed there.” At this point he feels proud and like everyone is looking at him with amazement. He caught the ball with his bare hands and it’s very painful to do that, that’s why everyone was amazed and why he was proud. Also, he was a little kid which makes all that much astonishing. 

There is some foreshadowing in the story when it says that Erick prays to God for good to come to him and his mom, “ He prayed for good to come, for his mom and for him, since God was like magic, and happiness might come the way of early morning, in the trees and bushes full of sparrows next to his open window, louder and louder when he listened hard, eyes closed.” At the end when he gets his signed baseball, Gilb compares the fans with sparrows. These sparrows, to me, are the sign of Erick’s happiness, or they could also be a sign of God. When he is praying to God, there are sparrows outside of his window. When he gets his signed ball, which seems like the happiest moment of his life, the author compares the people to sparrows.