Kate Stuewe

Ms. Wing
Pre-Ap
10/1/17
6
The Plum Plum Pickers

Raymond Barrio’s piece of writing called The Plum Plum Pickers gives an insight

into the life of a migrant worker and his struggles of controlling his humanity. Barrio’s

use of abrupt diction and imagery, on-going syntax, and dwelling tone sets the mood for

the story. Barrio’s purpose for writing this piece is to allow more information to be let out

about the struggles of migrant workers and their daily lives. This writing contains many

examples of figurative language and sentence structure in order to convey the meaning of

the writing with a deep mood and tone.

Raymond Barrio uses many short, one-word sentences in his writing to add pace

to the story of Manuel Gutiérrez. When Manuel is fighting off his inner self he talks

about how he is turning into an animal and say, “…Pleased to meetcha. Predator.

Lunch”(1). When talking about the conflicts with Manuel’s own self, Barrio uses one-

word sentences to add another dimension to the character. Continuing with the short

sentence theme Barrio discusses the surroundings of Manuel’s work ground he says,

“Then up again. The trees. The branches again. The briarly branches” (2), Barrio uses

these simple, short sentences to add pace to the story and adding characterization to the

piece of writing. Barrio can control how the tone is conveyed and a new pace to the story

using the short sentences.

The Plum Plum Pickers’ syntax is full of commas, the commas help connect the

thoughts of the characters together. Barrio describes the landscape of the work yard and
compares it to that of a jail, he says, “endless maze of apricot trees, although forever neat

rows of them, neatly planted row after row”(1). The continuous string of commas is used

to extend the ideas of the setting in the text. By including multiple commas there can be

more details added into the text. Barrio also uses commas to add more information to the

text, it can be seen when he talks about Roberto Morales, he says, “… his being a fellow

Mexican, despite his torn, old clothing, everyone knew what kind of criminal he was”(4).

Barrio adds more details to Morales’ appearance by adding more description towards his

clothing using commas. By implementing commas into the text, Barrio is able to add

more information and details to the text and characters.

Raymond Barrio’s writing style can be characterized as short and abrupt, this adds

to the overall tone of the story. The tone of this story could be described as sorrowful

and depressive. Barrio creates this tone when describing Manuel surrounding apricot

trees, saying, “He was trapped in an endless maze of apricot trees”(1). Barrio is

describing the trees as an endless maze of which Manuel cannot escape; this sets the tone

for the story. It adds tone because Barrio is describing the place where Manuel works as a

jail and implies how he feels trapped. Another time where Barrio creates the tone in the

story is when he talks about Manuel and how he felt when he took his break, “He felt his

spirits swell out again like a thirsty sponge in water”(2). Barrio writes about how

Manuel’s soul was replenished just from a simple sip of water and resting his eyes for a

moment, this creates a tone of sympathy. The tone in this excerpt is full of sympathy for

Manuel and his working conditions and Barrio perfectly captivates with this type of tone.

In Raymond Barrio’s writing, The Plum Plum Pickers, the diction, imagery,

syntax, and tone all blend together in perfect harmony to create a captivating story about
the daily life of a migrant worker. The short, abrupt manner of the sentences added pace,

the use of commas reveled more information about the characters and setting, and the

tone created a new mood in the story. Using these writing elements Barrio was able to

create a layered story about the hardship filled lives of migrant workers.