Circuit Essay
Most people in this world use positivity to help them through the hardest times in life. For some people positivity is used to make the worst things seem good. For others it’s used to prevent the bad moments from ever happening, by keeping their mind focused on the positive. But everyone uses it at some point in their life. In The Circuit, by Francisco Jimenez, Francisco uses positivity to make everything bad seem good. And there are many bad things that happen to him. But although Francisco lives through plenty of his own misfortune, he finds ways to use his good spirit to help others in need.
Francisco has to work through long tiring days in the fields, but he still gives away some of what he does have. He either picks strawberries or cotton in the fields for very little pay. But there is a day when Francisco’s friend Gabriel from the fields has even less than Francisco. And Francisco uses his generosity and gives Gabriel some of what he does have. Francisco and Gabriel took their lunch break together. Francisco’s mom made Francisco taquitos. But Gabriel wasn’t so lucky. On page 89 it says, “‘We get this same lunch from that Diaz every day,’ he complained, ‘I am really tired of this.’ ‘You can have one of my taquitos,’ I said.” It was a very kind thing for Francisco to do when he offered Gabriel his taquito. He wasn’t going to do it for money, or for anything in return. He did it using his good spirit to help others in need.
Francisco goes through hard days, and can’t wait to get to sleep, but one day he saw something dying, and he stopped to help it out. Francisco was walking home from school in the rain when he noticed many dirty puddles filled with dying fish. Francisco could have left them there to die and gone home to bed. But instead, Francisco did something that saved a lot of their lives. On page 50 it says, “I filled it with water and began picking up the dying fish from the mud puddles,” Francisco suffers a lot, and could have gone home on that day he saw the dying fish. But instead of thinking about himself, he thought about others. And he knew, without a doubt, that it didn’t matter how tired he was. He couldn’t live with himself knowing he left an innocent creature to die. He used his good spirit to save the fish even though he was in his own time of struggle.
Francisco is having a good time playing kick-the-can, but he stops playing to stick up for his friend so that he can play too. Francisco is playing kick the can outside his cabin in the fields. He is playing with his brothers Trampita, Torito, and Ruben, and another boy who works in the fields, Carlos. Carlos is like the boss. And he is mean about it. He won’t let Francisco’s friend (Manuelito) play. Francisco is playing in the fields, watching Manuelito watch him. Manuelito can’t play kick the can, not while Carlos is in charge. On page 86 it says, “‘He can’t play. He’s too slow.’ ‘Come on Carlos, let him play,’ I insisted.” In this scene Francisco shows true kindness by sticking up for Manuelito. He was fine playing kick the can with the rest of his siblings, but he used his good spirit to help his friend. By doing this action, Francisco shows his good heart, and his willingness to help others.
Francisco has many unfortunate events happen to him in his childhood, but he pushes through it and finds his good spirit so that he can help others who are struggling even more than him. Whether Francisco is helping a friend, giving to a friend, or helping a animal, you can tell that he has a truly good heart and spirit through it all. Positivity is the key to having a good spirit. If you are always positive, you can make things seem like they are not really bad. He is in a very hard time. But he uses his positivity to get through it. We should all do that too. Our new president has some ideas that are unjust. But if we are like Francisco and use our positive side, we can try to stop and get past all of the new laws and bans he is making. So, try and find your positivity, and use it like Francisco uses his, for the best of others.