After reading the except from “Under the Feet of Jesus” by Helena Maria Viramontes, multiple times one realizes that through the tone and figurative speech, how Estrella character develops a positive change in her life. In the beginning of the excerpt, Estrella was very angry to see Perfecto’s red tool chest at the door, she was very confused. “the iron bars and things with handles, the funny-shaped objects, seemed as confusing and foreign as the alphabet she could not decipher” (Viramontes). This use of metaphor goes to show that Estrella is in fact mad and confused because she doesn’t understand the tools just like how she doesn’t understand the alphabet.
Much of Estrella’s frustration seems to come from the fact that she wants to learn but …show more content…
But, after years of Estrella struggling to learn things such as the alphabet a man named Perfecto comes along with his red tool chest and eventually teaches Estella more than any of her teachers in school did. This symbolizes irony because Estrella is someone who was always willing to learn but all her teachers overlooked her willingness and did not care therefore making Estrella angry and resentful towards everybody. The use of the tools in the toolbox is a metaphor that is portrayed throughout the entire excerpt because Estrella compares not being able to understand “the foreign tools” in the toolbox with, the alphabet that she has never been able to understand. When Perfecto teaches Estella about the tools, he teachers her more than the names of these tools he teachers her how they are used and why. This connection with Perfecto shows how Estrella develops a positive change in her life because she was then able to understand things. In the last paragraph, it reads “and soon she came to understand how essential it was to know these things. That was when she began to read” (Viramontes). Estella begins to understand and is more excited to learn, and no longer wants to be resentful toward her past