Sara Everton as Insensitive Character
Minority Protagonist in Harriet Doerr’s Stones for Ibarra
Oct 12, 2008 Allison D. Schisler
Sara Everton represents a rare female protagonist in American travel literature. And she remains both insensitive and ethnocentric during her time in Mexico.
Everton’s Inability to Assimilate into Mexican Culture
Sara, herself a minority on the basis of gender, remains unable to and uninterested in assimilating into the Mexican culture when she moves from San Francisco to Ibarra. While, of course, the Mexican citizens are not a minority in their own country, to Sara, they still represent a minority population.
Even as Sara and Richard move from a position of majority status in the U.S. to minority status in Mexico, Sara still behaves as if she is in the majority by refusing to acculturate. One example of this inability is her refusal to live simply. Surrounded by poverty and shortage, Sara and Richard order new furniture, new tiles, and new appliances.
And when Richard and Sara whitewash their walls, Remedios notes, “They have employed Miguel Velasquez to chip away at the paint which is still in excellent condition” (22). The luxuries the Americans afford themselves seem extravagant when juxtaposed to the culture and simplicity of the Ibarran citizens.
Sara’s disinterest in learning the Spanish language further reveals her lack of assimilation: “While Richard spoke more and more fluently in the accents of the miners who worked with him, Sara continued to speak incorrectly and without embarrassment her own flawed version of language” (86). While Sara eventually takes language lessons from the Madre, even during her lessons she displays little dedication to language acquisition. Hence Sara, a minority on the basis of gender, reveals her insensitivity through her failure to assimilate.
Everton’s Ethnocentrism as Evidence of Cultural Insensitivity
Further evidence of Sara’s insensitivity toward the Ibarrans is revealed in her ethnocentrism. Sara continues to believe not only that her culture is better than the Ibarran culture, but also to assume that others operate from the same presuppositions and values as she.
One example is Sara’s advice to the Mexican women concerning contraceptives, “But an hour later she will tell their mothers not to have any more [children] and how not to. In conflict with the pope. In conflict with God.” (24). Sara does not consider religious values or the cultural norms of the Ibarrans when giving such advice.
Furthermore, when Chuy Santos wants to take out a loan from the Evertons, Sara advises him to borrow the money from “any bank” (78). Chuy thinks, “What an imagination…This woman probably notices faces in clouds, spirits in water, and words in the wind” (78). Sara disregards that Chuy probably has little loan history and even less collateral to offer a bank; instead Sara gives the advice she would give a middle-class American friend.
Sara’s ethnocentrism is also evident in her views about the religious practices of the Ibarrans. Even though she and Richard are not religious, and so have little basis to judge another religion, she views aspects of the Ibarran’s spirituality as ridiculous.
When Sara repeatedly finds relics and symbols indicating well being, she judges them ethnocentrically from her own perspective. Lourdes provides a thorn symbolizing health for the Evertons: “With Lourdes’s eyes upon her, she [Sara] crossed the kitchen to drop the thorn among the crumpled paper in the wastebasket” (111). Instead of realizing the relics are gifts from the Ibarrans, Sara discards them.
Harriet Doerr’s Sara Everton, a minority on the basis of gender, shows little sensitivity to the culture of the Mexican people in Stones for Ibarra.
Penguin, 1985, 0140075623
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