This paper examines Helena Viramontes' novel Under the Feet of Jesus as an example of literary realism, tracing how the work portrays the hardships of Chicano migrant life in the United States from the 1930s through the 1970s. The paper first outlines the defining characteristics of the realist movement — fidelity to lived experience, authentic language, natural narrative structure, broad social accessibility, and psychological depth — and then applies those criteria to Viramontes' text. Through close readings of key passages involving characters Perfecto and Estrella, the analysis demonstrates how the novel avoids melodrama in favor of honest, image-driven depictions of migrant reality.
The paper models criteria-based literary analysis: it first establishes an explicit evaluative standard (the five characteristics of realism) and then tests the novel against each criterion. This approach is particularly effective for shorter analytical essays because it provides a ready-made organizational scaffold while keeping the argument focused and falsifiable.
The essay opens with a thesis situating Viramontes' novel within the realist tradition, then provides a concise overview of realism's historical origins and defining features. Two body sections follow, each built around a specific character and passage: one analyzing Perfecto's class consciousness, the other examining Estrella's embodied experience of labor. The conclusion is implicit within the final close reading rather than a separate paragraph. The Works Referenced list uses a non-standard hybrid citation format.
Helena Viramontes' novel Under the Feet of Jesus explores the difficulties of life that Chicanos faced in the United States from the 1930s through the 1970s. Her work is an exercise in literary realism, as it does not trivialize the trials of Chicano life with grand political statements or heavy symbolism. Instead, it is a clean portrait of a family and their friends who are all attempting — at times desperately — to live their lives in a land that more often than not does not want them there. A realist work holds truth paramount. Viramontes faithfully reconstructs life through a series of images that offer a perspective of reality, of truth, and of hopefulness for a people long suffering in this nation. This paper demonstrates the elements of realism in Viramontes' novel and explores the impact those elements have on the reader.
The realist movement began in the mid-nineteenth century. Realists believed that writing should be an accurate, not idealized, reflection of lived experience. While many levels of truth may exist on both the ideal and metaphorical planes, the permanent truths are those visible in the moment — in the here and now. In order to create truth and beauty in literature, only a careful and faithful study of nature can be employed.
There are several defining characteristics of realism. First, the subject is drawn from the life of the author and from the community in which the author lives and works. Second, realism employs language that reflects the true forms of communication, diction, and expression common to that community — a quality clearly confirmed in Under the Feet of Jesus by the documentary Chicano! Episode Four: Fighting for Political Power and by Garrison. Third, the events of the work should be patterned on the natural flow of life, not forced into an arbitrary structure imposed by traditional novel conventions. Fourth, the vision of the subject should be rendered in such a way that people across all classes may engage with the story. Finally, through their intimate vision of the subject, the author must also achieve a psychological understanding of the characters. Given these defining factors, we can apply their filter to Viramontes' novel.
It would be easy to turn the characters of Under the Feet of Jesus into figures from a Grapes of Wrath-style tragedy. But life is rarely so poetic or pathetic. Rather than marginalizing her work with complete fiction, Viramontes intensely describes life as a migrant worker. Estrella ("Star") and her family float from town to town during agricultural production seasons, and their lives are rendered through simple yet highly effective images that focus attention on the world in which they live. What is evident throughout the story is that the lives of Perfecto and his family are not tragic — they are simply what they are.
Perfecto thinks about the nurse and imagines that she talks to her husband while "stirring cream into her decaffeinated coffee," while her husband sat on the couch watching television, "because that is how Perfecto imagined people who had couches and living rooms and television sets and who drank coffee even at night." In one sentence, we come to know a man who not only lacks these things but may never have had them. This is a truth about Perfecto and a truth about his life. It is not tragic or false that he makes this observation — it is simply his perspective, and that perspective tells us a great deal about him.
Realism requires that language and setting be true to the reality of the subject. Estrella is described in terms of her physical presence and thoughts — her here and now. While in the hospital, she is described as follows: "She felt filthy, the coils of her neck etched with dirt and sweat." The use of the word etched implies that where the dirt is now, it will always be. Estrella will never be able to fully distance herself from her current life, because it — like the fields, orchards, wagon, and hospital — is indelibly imprinted upon her existence.
The truth of Estrella's life, and of Viramontes' writing, is that it is a faithful reflection of the very real experiences of the Mexican migrant worker. By refusing melodrama and grounding her narrative in precise, physical detail, Viramontes achieves what the realist tradition demands: a portrait so honest that it carries the weight of lived experience. The novel's power lies not in what it dramatizes, but in what it simply, and truthfully, shows.
Chicano! Episode Four: Fighting for Political Power. Galan, Hector; Morales, Sylvia; Racho, Susan; Moreno, Mylene; and Cozens, Robert. Film. National Latino Communications Center, 1996.
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