Critical Option:
Our initial conversation last week about Solito last week focused on how Zamora’s tightly controls the narration, focalizing the entire memoir through the perspective of the nine-year-old “narrated” I. In other words, the distinction between the narrating “I” and the narrated “I” is almost entirely collapsed. The resulting narrative, because it is delivered from the point of view of a nine-year-old, can seem more straightforward and simple on many levels, from diction and voice to plotting and character development. The question I want to focus on today will allow us to frame this authorial choice less in terms of what it takes away from the narrative and more on what it adds or affords. In your response, write about how Zamora’s decision to focalize through his younger self shapes some of the key facets of autobiographical subjects and acts. Focus on just one concept each from the chapters on “subjects” and “acts” in Reading Autobiography Now, and do your best to articulate your response in a way that focuses on what the limited narrational perspective affords.
Creative Option:
Take a significant life moment and narrate it, as tightly as you can, from the perspective of the immediate subject of that experience. After you draft the narrative moment, reflect on the outcome. How did the constraints on perspective inform the details you mentioned, or the characters you represented, or the situation you framed?
From subjects: Relationality (pg 50-58). By focalizing through his nine-year-old self, Zamora presents a subject whose identity is deeply shaped by his relationships with those around him. As a child, his sense of self is not independent or fully formed but emerges through his interactions with his fellow migrants, caregivers, and smugglers. His reliance on Patricia and Chino, for example, becomes a defining part of his survival, highlighting how identity—especially in a migration narrative—is constructed in relation to others rather than in isolation. The limited perspective of a child underscores this relationality because young Javier does not yet have the language or self-awareness to analyze his dependencies in abstract terms; instead, his understanding comes through observation, gestures, and moments of care or abandonment.
From objects: Narrating “I” as a younger version of the writer (pg 114-115). Zamora’s use of the child narrating “I” shapes how his story is told and received. By committing to the perspective of his younger self, he immerses the reader in the uncertainty, fear, and wonder of a child experiencing migration in real time. This choice distances the text from a retrospective, analytical adult voice, which might interpret or explain events differently. Instead, the child narrating “I” captures the immediacy of experience, presenting emotions and observations as they unfold, without the full context or explanations an adult might provide. This allows the memoir to sustain a raw, unfiltered emotional truth—where confusion, hope, and terror coexist in ways that feel authentic to a child’s perspective. The absence of adult hindsight also means that gaps in understanding remain, reinforcing the disorientation and powerlessness of migration from a child’s viewpoint.