Whenever Francisco has a joy or friend in his life he is moved away from it.

Some people don’t have a place to settle. They never have a place to call home and they can never have real friends. This can have an effect on people. If someone doesn’t have a place to call home they usually can’t feel welcomed or safe. In the book The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez, Francisco has to move around against his will. Whenever Francisco has a joy or friend in his life he is moved away from it.

Francisco is moved around and people don’t acknowledge his accomplishments. This is revealed when Francisco comes home to tell his parents that he got the medal for his art but they tell him they are moving. ¨That day I could hardly wait to tell Mama and Papa the great news… I saw that everything we owned was neatly packed in cardboard boxes¨ pg.83. Francisco was proud of his accomplishment but then when he wanted to share it with his parents they literally and figuratively move away from it.  

Francisco usually finds something that interests him but then it is taken away from him. Francisco starts a penny collection but then it is burnt in a fire. Before that, Francisco is looking for two pennies that he’s missing and it turned out that his sister used them on gumballs. “YOU USED THEM ON GUMBALLS!” I think the fury in Francisco’s voice means that he just lost something he cared about for a bad reason.

Francisco wanted to help his family but something was in the way. He could help his family by earning a cotton sack so that he could help them pick cotton. Francisco wanted to earn his cotton sack but he couldn’t because he wasn’t physically strong enough. When he realizes that he can’t earn it he gets sad. ¨I knew I had not yet learned my cotton sack.¨ I imagine him being sad that he can’t help his family have a better life.

In The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez, Francisco is constantly moved around and whenever he has a joy of friend in his life he is moved away from it. The medals from his artwork, the pennies that were used on gumballs, and the cotton sack are all examples of this. Francisco has a bad life and no friends. But he does bond with unusual objects.