"Three Hundred Pesos:" Story Analysis

About the Author:

Manuela Williams Crosno was born in 1905 and died in 1997. A long-time resident of Las Cruces, New Mexico, she set her stories in the area around Santa Fe, Albequerque, and Taos. Her interest in Hispanic culture is reflected in the subject matter of many of those stories. As an English teacher, Crosno won a statewide essay contest with her essay, "Why I Teach School." She was an accomplished poet, artist, and illustrator.

Short Summary:

At the beginning of the story Emilio visits his sister to tell her that Anastacio did not lend him 1 peso to buy a medicine for the kid so Berta gives the peso to Emilio, then Anastacio saw a crow on his farm and he started to shout to it, asking the crow if it was thinking to do the same as his brothers and appropriate of everything that belongs to him. After that, Anastacio was thinking to have his own store so he needed 300 pesos to own it. One time someone stole money from his house. Since that day he kept his pesos in a leather bag under his shirt tightly tied to his trouser belt. Then he counted his money and he only had 200 pesos but he would probably get 50 pesos more from the sale of his corn. Then a very big storm ruined Anastacio’s corn and he thought that somehow it was Emilio’s fault, after that Berta visited Anastacio asking him for some money because a tree ruined her house and Anastacio rejected to do so and when Berta was leaving a wind blew and he had a bad feeling, the next day Anastacio’s farm was invaded by a flock of wandering sheep. The entire crop of corn was destroyed and somehow Anastacio thought that it was Berta’s fault. During the winter of that year Anastacio decided to plant pinto beans because he herd that they would sell for a high price, he worked very hard during all summer and he take a lot of care with his plantations to avoid any danger. When the beans were ready to sell he left the village hopping to sell the beans for 50 pesos, so with that he was going to gather the 300 pesos he needed. When he was on his way he was struck from behind by a fast-moving horseless wagon, he lost all his crops again but the owner of the horseless wagon paid 50 pesos to him for the beans. Anastacio was injured and he sat down under a tree but his horses kept going near to the place where Emilio and Berta worked, finally they found Anastacio dead with his 300 pesos and they said: “what a beautiful funeral he will have”.

Story’s Plot:

Conflict:

• Anastacio needs 300 pesos to get his own store.

Rising Action:

1. Emilio asked Anastacio to let him 1 peso to buy a medicine for the kid.
2. A large storm destroys Anastacio’s corn.
3. Berta asked Anastacio to help her because a tree destroyed her house.
4. Anastacio’s farm was invaded by a flock of wandering sheep that destroyed all his crops.
5. Anastacio planted pinto beans to sell them for 50 pesos.
6. Anastacio had an accident with a horseless wagon and he lost all his beans.
7. The owner of the horseless wagon paid 50 pesos to Anastacio.

Climax:

• Anastacio dies with the 300 pesos. He was rich.

Resolution:

• Emilio and Berta used Anastacio’s 300 pesos to prepare his funeral.

Characters:

1. Anastacio: he is the main character of the story, he is very selfish and he only thinks about what he needs, he does not cares about his brothers and he wants to own a store, he does everything that he can to get enough money to own the store.
2. Emilio: He is Anastacio's brother, he is very generous and gentle, he is not selfish and he is a good person.
3. Berta: Anastacio's sister, she is just like Emilio, very generous and a good person, she is a hardworker woman and very gentle.

Moral Teaching of the Story:

• well the main purpose of the story is to make us better persons, to tell us that we have to ve generous and gentle because if we are not, we will have several problems in life and we will end like Anastacio, we do not have to treat people as we do not want to be treated.

My point of view:

• I really do not like the story because I think that it is a very sad story and is full of bad things like catastrophes, however I think that the story has a very nice moral teaching because we learn a lot, just like in real life we have to learn from our mistakes to try to do things better in the future.