Victor Martinez’s novel “Parrot in the Oven”, takes place in a bad place where gangs, under-age drinking, and violence is common. The main character Manny Hernandez is a 14 year old boy who wants to be a good person and do the right thing but, that’s hard for him because of the of the environment that he lives in. One lesson that someone could take from the novel is sometimes the easiest way, isn’t the right way.
Manny makes many of his decisions based on what’s right because that’s the type of person he is. In the first chapter Manny convinces his brother to work in a chili pepper field with him to earn money so he can buy a baseball mitt. There are some other ways that Manny could have made money, but Manny choose to earn the money by working in a field on a super-hot day with his brother Nardo. “I wanted a baseball mitt so bad a sweet hurt blossomed in my stomach whenever I thought about it. Baseball had a grip on my fantasies then, and I couldn’t shake it loose. There was an outfielder’s glove in the window of the Duran’s Department Store that kept me dreaming downright dangerous outfields catches. I decided to stir up Nardo to see if he’d go pick chili peppers with me.”
In the middle of the book, the theme is proven again when Manny tries to convinces his friend Albert to leave a boxing team because Manny thought Albert would get beaten badly by whoever he would end up boxing. “I tried to warning him. I tried explaining how ribs crack easy as dry twigs, and how a punch sometimes welcomes paralysis. But he wouldn’t listen. He practically begged to sign up, and you could tell Lencho was disappointed at such a scrawny catch. He wanted guys like Nardo and Sammy Fuentes-dangerous known to everyone.”
Towards the end of the book Manny proves the theme by helping Nardo with his Job, even if it’s super cold. “To everyone’s surprise , Nardo got a job delivering medicine for Giddens’s Pharmacy. “I helped him with his route on Saturdays, when the weather was either snips of cold snagging fishhooks through your cloths, or just plain icy, with the steam flowing from every breath. Nardo would keep the engine running while I bolted for the cash, Medi-Cal card, whichever arrangement those old retired geezers had with the pharmacy. Afterward, we’d go to lunch in Chinatown and order hot plates of chow mien noodles and sweet-and-sour pork.”
Some people, may say the theme is something like don’t fall for bad temptations, while that is a good idea of what the theme is it’s not proven thought out the story. Manny is a role model of a kid that doesn’t fall for bad temptations but, towards the end of the book there isn’t any evidence of this. So the theme sometimes the easiest way, isn’t the right way is the best proven theme of “Parrot in the Oven.”