Duenas 1

Julian Duenas

Professor Lisa Orta

English 123

16 April 2018

Religion of Rules

Rules are meant to be followed. Throughout life, people are constantly governed by them.

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

and morals. But at what point does following the rules lead someone down a darker path? In

some cases, the obsession of rules can lead to judgement and 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 it,

and in a way, they did. To Efren, those who didn’t follow the rules had no place in his ideal

society, and this led him to lead a judgmental and bitter life. The tone of Efren during the story

quickly went from the importance of following the rules to a race driven anger toward the people

throughout his community. Efren most closely follows “The Ruler” archetype. His greatest

desires are power and control (Golden), and he 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 fear of chaos and in turn being overthrown.

The theme of this short story suggests that religiously following the rules won’t make someone a

better person and wont 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
 Duenas 2

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

Mexican “mojados” who ride his bus. 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.

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

to lose all control through chaos. 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. Throughout the description of events, Efren

collectively explains what he did and his reasoning behind it, as if he was explaining what he did

was justifiable and how he was still upholding the rules. “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 noticeable

amount of hypocrisy in his actions because throughout the whole story, he explains 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.

What needs to be kept in mind, that we are reading the incident through Efren’s point of

view. By nature, Efren is going to defend and justify his actions even if he did break the rules.

Throughout the chapter, Efren explicitly expressed his opinions and prejudices toward others in
 Duenas 3

the Echo Park community. It’s possible that Efren could have snapped and hit the kid in anger.

This may not have been a calculated decision that Efren made premeditatively, but his profanity

filled, race driven rant about Mexicans and African Americans beforehand might suggest his

actions were somewhat intentional through impulse. This proves why strictly following the rules

as Efren did may not make you a better person. This mentality caused Efren to become

judgmental and bitter toward others and in turn, may have led to the death of this young man.

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.

In the end, the theme of this story suggests that religiously following the rules might not

necessarily make someone a better person or lead them towards a better life. Efren’s obsession

with following the rules caused him to become an authoritarian figure with prejudicial opinions

towards African Americans and Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles. He expressed his power as

a bus driver by strictly enforcing the rules, but eventually played into his greatest fears by

accidentally hitting the young man who he kicked off the bus. Based on Efren’s explicit

judgment towards others, it is possible for Efren to have snapped, leading him to unintentionally

kill the young man. Efren followed the rules as much as he could but was still overthrown and

stripped of his control and power.

 Duenas 4

Works Cited

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.