Topic: What kind of person is Javier?

Javier, a mature man, is one of the main figures in “La Linea”, which was written by Ann
Jarmillo. Javier wanted to go to New York and earn money to send to his family in Mexico. On the way, Javierg had helped Miguel and Elena, who desired to join their parents in California. In spite of his talkativeness, Javier is a real picture of unselfishness and cleverness. At the beginning of Javier’s appearance, the first of his personal characters is talkative, “a fast-flowing river of words, as if he’d been starved for conversation.” He talked, talked, and talked without Miguel’s listening and answer. Talkativeness is really a bad impression to the reader at the inception about Javier. If we keep our reading, we can find out that Javier is an unselfish person. He’s really a good man. He’d taken a big risk to attract the “federales” and make a chance for other people in the bus to escape. He didn’t care what happened to him after the risk. Even he had a family to think about, a son, a daughter, a wife. When Javier met Miguel and Elena again, and they were in the “mata gente” together, Javier did as much as he could for Elena and Miguel. Though he had been through many hard times before he could be on the “mata gente”, he still kept looking out for every big and little danger. He had not slept, “his eyes were red, and his face was drawn.” Nevertheless, he told Miguel: “Rest some. I’ll keep watch for a while.” In many times, they had to hop off and on the “mata gente”, and Javier got hurt with his ankle at once. He didn’t want to be a burden for Miguel and Elena so he pleaded them to leave him and get out of there. He didn’t want to slow their itinerary down. How can a person do many things for another person without thinking about himself if he isn’t unselfish? Javier is not only an unselfish person, but also a clever guy. He seemed to know what should be done in every situation. He had helped Elena disguise herself to be a boy to avoid many dangerous things from “mata gente” such as cutting her hair as short as possible, marking “Tengo SIDA” on her chest. He also had chosen a good place to jump on the “mata gente”. He knew how hard it was to jump on the train so “he made Miguel and Elena run through the steps ten times before he was satisfied.” That practice was really helpful for Miguel and Elena to hop on the train successfully and safely at the first time. The second day on the train, they ran out of water and food, they were dead tired. Javier had comforted Elena and told about the people who take care of the migrants like them. He was right. They got the food after that. When there were the train gangs, Javier had guide Elena and Miguel to hide in a safe place. He had kept Elena safe from being hurt. After all of this, we can say Javier’s behavior is very wise. Although we haven’t read the last of the book, Javier really wins our hearts with his behavior- the clever and unselfish man. We seem to forget about his talkativeness. We all wish Javier and Miguel, Elena could reach their dream in North.