Coming of Age in Rudolfo Anaya's "The Apple Orchard"

Introduction: Anaya's Themes and the Story's Setup

Rudolfo Anaya grew up in New Mexico, and much of his work reflects this upbringing. A popular theme in his fiction is the background of the state and the introduction of factors that can lead to human destruction: greed, lust, self-righteousness, deception, and connivance (Garcia 2000, p. 11). His short story The Apple Orchard is no exception. It is the story of a young boy named Isador, a seventh grader who struggles to come of age in his community. The first-person narrator has a father who values education deeply.

The theme of education and its importance is integral to Chicano literature. According to Hector Calderon (1999), it is extremely difficult to complete one's education in the Hispanic community, particularly when English is not one's first language. He writes, "Out of some thirty-plus students, three of us graduated from high school on time, a few others had to repeat grades, and the rest were lost along the way" (p. 4). To counter this likelihood, Isador's father constantly reminds him of the importance of education: "Go and learn everything there is to learn. That's the only way to get ahead in this world" (2006, p. 74). There is an irony in this, however, since the story is really about a young boy's change from pre-sexual innocent to someone who fantasizes about his favorite teacher — an education his father would be far less enthusiastic about.

The Father's Influence and the Value of Education

Isador listens to two boys in his class — the type his father would rather he avoided, believing they will not succeed in life. At one point, the boy sneaks into his parents' room and takes a mirror from his mother's bureau, committing another transgression in the process of maturation. His father has ordered him never to enter the parents' bedroom while they are inside together. "I knew that part of their life was shut off to me, and it was to remain a mystery" (p. 75). The boy has only a vague sense that something occurs between his parents but remains ignorant of its nature. The father wishes to keep his son unaware of sexual intimacy by preventing him from accidentally witnessing it.

It would seem that the father is attempting to preserve his son's innocence for as long as possible. He demands that his child attend school and not play hooky. What he wants is for the boy to succeed, and the best way to achieve that — in his view — is to keep him naïve of the distractions that could lead a child to failure. The father's protectiveness, well-intentioned as it is, ultimately cannot shield Isador from the natural curiosity of adolescence.

Peer Pressure, Transgression, and the Mirror

After taking the mirror, Pico and Chueco press Isador further into arranging a situation in which they can steal a bottle of glue from Miss Brighton. Once this is accomplished, the trio enters the bathroom, where Isador is ordered to break his mother's mirror. His thoughts turn to the potential repercussions of the choices he is about to make. When he glimpses his reflection in the glass, Isador says, "I thought of the disgrace I would bring my father if he knew what I was about to do" (p. 76). Each boy takes a piece of glass and glues it to his shoe. It is fitting that this preparation takes place in a bathroom; Isador repeatedly comments on the stench of the place, as if his surroundings mirror the moral weight of his actions. The intention of the exercise is to use the mirror shards to see the undergarments of their fellow classmates.