Milagro Beanfield Essay
...o enjoyed Mondragon’s company, but everyone in the town respected him. In a town where respect was a key factor in a person’s popularity, Joe seemed to be the leader in that category. Joe however in the end breaks down and joins the rest in stopping Ladd Devine. He first despised the fact that everyone was looking up to him as the “leader” and constantly wished that he had never planted the bean field, but after some convincing from his wife he finally owed up to his responsibility to the town and signed the petition. The man who everyone despised in the town was Ladd Devine. In fact the town pig, the bringer of chaos earned more respect than Ladd Devine. Devine was the man in charge of The Miracle Valley project; his plan was to put the town of Milagro under water, to increase his Miracle Valley Ranch and golf course value. Devine inherited the ranch and project from his father, who inherited it from his father. Ladd often doubted himself and believed he would never be able live up to his family name. Ladd Devine was the villain of the novel, the town of Milagro despised Devine, and vandalized, and stole his property. On page two-hundred and five some anonymous citizens made mock road-side crosses stating; Passerby, pray for the soul of Zipotle Devine. Devine was the town’s enemy during the beanfield war. The local town authorities wouldn’t co-operate with Devine. The people of Milagro would rather watch pitiful little bean plant grow than support the efforts of Ladd Devine. In section four Ladd also sits down and doubts his abilities yet again. He questions why everything is seemingly going wrong with him and wondering what he did wrong to anger the towns people so. Ladd shows community only through the fact that the whole town hates him and they are brought together through their mutual feelings. The towns sheriff Bernabe Montoya was quite possibly the most incompetent citizens of Milagro. He had no authority over the local town’s people. Sheriff Montoya has such a small influence on the community that he kindly asked Joe to stop cultivating his beanfield due to the ruckus he was causing. Joe in turn to the polite request simply turned his shoulder and kept on irrigating.. Bernabe did nothing except start up some small talk with Joe while he continued cultivating his mini bean field. In section four Bernabe is called to investigate the robbery of the local general store. All he did while he was there was fouled up the whole crime scene making it impossible to find anyone else’s fingerprints except for his own which covered most of the looted store. He is the other extreme as an example for being a citizen. He is a man that should have an empower glow to him but yet seems to be one of the worst citizens in the town cause he seemed not to really care what the crazy citizens did in this town. The novel was very good at portraying characters and their relationship with the communi...