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Julian Duenas

Professor Orta

English 123

18 May 2018

A Ruler’s Downfall

Rules were made to be followed. They are put in place for public safety, liability and

legality. Rules come in the form of laws, guidelines and some are unspoken rules that derive

from ethics and morals. Although these rules were put in place to help and guide people as a

society, where is the line that separates a law-abiding citizen from a power-hungry authoritarian?

In some cases, an obsession with rules can lead to judgement and the desire for control. In

Brando Skyhorse’s, The Madonnas of Echo Park, Efren Mendoza is one of the several characters

in the novel who tells his story within Echo Park. Efren followed the rules like his life depended

on them, and in a way, it did. To Efren, people who didn’t follow the rules had no place in his

ideal society, and this led him to lead a judgmental and bitter life. In fact, this way of living

prevented Efren from developing meaningful relationships with other people. Skyhorse uses

several methods of storytelling and elements of fiction to articulate the theme relating to Efren’s

experience. For an element of fiction, Skyhorse uses tone to help define the theme of Efren’s

story. According to Dr. Robert Burroughs in his piece about the element of fiction: tone,

Burroughs explains, “Tone is the implied attitude of the writer or the speaker towards the subject

material, the audience; the emotional coloring or emotional meaning of the work.” (Burroughs).

Skyhorse tells Efren’s story using the literary genre: the short story. Skyhorse also defines Efren

by using the school of literary criticism: psychoanalytic criticism, more specifically, by

appointing Efren as the archetypal Ruler. Carl Golden articulates Carl Gustav Jung’s concept of
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archetypes and defined several, such as The Ruler, whose “greatest desires are power and

control” (Golden), as Efren harnesses that power within himself through strictly following the

rules. Although Efren had followed the rules as much as he could throughout his life, he still

gave into his archetypal fears of, “chaos and being overthrown.” (Golden). The theme of this

short story suggests that religiously following the rules won’t make someone a better person and

won’t necessarily lead them towards a better life. Efren realizes this in the end, but unfortunately

for him, it was too late.

Efren believes for the simple fact that he follows all the rules, that he is above everyone

else. His prejudice toward others has caused him to lead a bitter life by constantly judging others

for the rules that they break. Although Efren is Mexican by heritage, he holds himself above the

Mexican “mojados” who ride his bus. The tone in which Efren speaks about them suggests that

he has separated himself from this own heritage and people simply because they don’t follow

Efren’s way of living. Efren explains, “When I speak English to them, they look disappointed

and offended.” “they look disappointed at me when I don’t speak Spanish in my country.”

(Skyhorse 78). Efren’s judgmental nature has led him to express authoritarian views toward

others which – explained by Golden – is one of Efren’s weaknesses as the Ruler archetype. A

connection can be seen with the title of this chapter and Efren’s view on the way people should

live. People often refer to life as a “road”. The chapter’s name, “Rules of the Road” could imply

the “road” as Efren’s life. The title is suggesting Efren is telling story of his righteous road that

everyone should be obligated to follow.

Skyhorse climaxed Efren’s story with a life changing conflict. This is where Efren started

to lose all control through chaos, and the tone of the story took a tense turn as events unfolded.

As Efren was explaining the story, his tone became very defensive as if he knew he broke some
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very important rules, but he was justifying his actions as if he made a conscious decision to drive

away like he did. Efren initially expressed his power as the driver of the bus when he kicked off

one of the passengers involved in the altercation, but after hitting and killing the young man,

Efren was overcome with shock. Efren defends his actions by saying, “It’s violation of Metro

policy to leave the scene of an accident. But I had the safety of my passengers to consider.

Nobody mentions that, by driving away, I saved those other Mexicans’ lives.” (Skyhorse 86).

There is a significant amount of hypocrisy coming from Efren, because throughout the whole

story, he explained the utmost importance of following the rules, especially when it came to his

job. He impulsively made decisions that clearly broke the rules and regulations as a bus driver

claiming he was protecting the rest of the passengers, when in reality, he was protecting himself.

The chaos from the mob of people stripped Efren of his control and ended up being overcome

with fear which drove him to the decisions he made.

At the end of the chapter, Efren’s tone changes considerably. The conflict made him

reflect on himself which made him realize that the rules he was following may have led him to

become a bitter person and in turn, may have caused the accident. We see Efren make a 360-

degree turnaround when he breaks the rules again to give Freddy a ride. “I would get him to

where he needed to go no matter how long it took me. I would learn a new set of rules. I would

find another way home.” (Skyhorse 88). Although he realized the fault in his actions, it may have

been too late. His decisions had still led to the death of a young man. We’ve witnessed someone

who lived his whole life thinking they had it figured out. To Efren, his way of living was the

only way to live and was unwilling to change until this critical experience opened his eyes to the

flaws of his ways.

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Out of the several literary genres listed, I believe Efren’s story most closely resembles the

short story. The Aberystwyth University defines a short story as simply, “A short story [that] is a

short work of fiction.” The University also explains what makes a remarkable short story: “They

[short story writers] are true masters at combining the five key elements that go into every great

short story: character, setting, conflict, plot and theme.” (Aberystwyth University). Skyhorse tells

Efren’s short story in a way that fits all these elements together and is easy to understand,

including an introduction to the character and a little room at the end for imagination. While

Efren’s story did cross over into other storylines, the story didn’t have a telling ending. We are

still left wondering what happened to Efren after he dropped Freddie off. Was he arrested and

charged with murder? Was he let off the hook legally while getting fired from his job? Unlike

some of the other short stories that crossed over with preceding ones, Efren’s story ends with the

chapter. We don’t get to see if this experience really changed the way he viewed life and stuck

with him in the long run, or if he went back to his old ways of following the rules a week later.

When it comes to the school of literary criticism applied to the original response, the

most obvious school would be a reader response. But that’s too broad of a school. When diving

deeper into the type of reader response, I consider this a piece of psychoanalytic criticism.

According to the OWL Perdue website, “Psychoanalytic criticism builds on the Freudian theories

of psychology….” The site explains Freud’s Id, Ego and Superego. It then went off to explain

the relationship with Carl Jung, a student of Freud’s. “In literary analysis, a Jungian critic would

look for archetypes in creative works.” (“Perdue OWL: Literary Theory And Schools Of

Criticism”). While I wrote a Jungian archetypal analysis on Efren, we can compare this analysis

with Freud’s Id, Ego and Superego. “Freud maintained that our desires and our unconscious

conflicts give rise to three areas of the mind that wrestle for dominance as we grow from infancy,
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to childhood, to adulthood.” (“Perdue OWL: Literary Theory And Schools Of Criticism”). We

know that Efren’s obsession with following the rules stuck with him and influenced his way of

thinking when he was growing up. An example of this is seen when Efren’s brother and father

try and jump him into the gang. Efren’s “Superego” is being expressed throughout the chapter.

In the end, no matter how closely Efren followed the rules, he still couldn’t live a

positive, fulfilling life. His way of life didn’t make him a better person because religiously

following the rules only led to judgment and bitterness that followed Efren wherever he went.

This way of living prevented him from developing any kind of meaningful relationships with

others and may have indirectly led to the death of a young man. Although Efren’s story ended

negatively, I can understand why he lives life the way he does. When analyzing Efren’s story, I

realized something. I realized, that I could live my life like Efren and still be happy, but I would

be missing out on some of the best experiences life could offer. My theme suggests that living

the way Efren does won’t necessarily lead you to a better life. Efren could still intrinsically find

joy in living the way he does. It was as if he was living in his own world. He alienated those

close to him who didn’t follow his ideals, and this is what prevented him from extrinsically

leading a better life. So, while I disagree with the kind of person Efren was and how he treated

others as a result of his way of living, I can understand it. He doesn’t want to get close to other

people who might bring him down in the long run even though ironically, he was his own

downfall in the end.

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Works Cited

Burroughs, Robert. “Elements of Fiction: Tone”. Humboldt State University, 18 Aug. 2007.

Accessed May 17, 2018. http://users.humboldt.edu/tduckart/tone.htm.

Skyhorse, Brando. The Madonnas of Echo Park: A Novel. New York, NY, Free Press, 2011.

Golden, Carl. “The 12 Common Archetypes.” Soulcraft. Accessed April 4, 2018.

“Purdue OWL: Literary Theory And Schools Of Criticism.” Owl.english.purdue.edu.

N.p., Accessed May 13 2018, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/04/

“The Five Important Elements of a Short Story. Aberyshwyth University, 22 Mar. 2004.

Accessed May 17, 2018. http://users.aber.ac.uk/jpm/ellsa/ellsa_elements.html