The Good Cripple: Individual Argument

Misael Argueta

Professor Maritza Fonseca

CAS 115

4 November 2013

The Good Cripple: Individual Argument

The Good Cripple is a story about how a man lives after being kidnapped for a ransom. Rodrigo Rey Rosa, the author of the book, shows the struggles and dilemma of Juan Luis Luna, the protagonist, in coping with being kidnapped and having his foot cut off. He shows how Juan has to adapt to society even though he just wants be his own self.

When Juan Luis Luna was kidnapped he wasn’t exactly a star child. He was rebellious to his father and refused to listen to his father in being a great man that is accepted by society. His family was well off financially so he was kidnapped. The kidnappers demanded ransom from Juan’s father  but since his father didn’t see him as a good son he was refusing to pay for his ransom.

The kidnappers tell Juan to write his father a letter pleading to him to pay the ransom so he can get out. In writing the letter Juan tells his father that he will change in order to become the son that his father always wanted. He will listen and obey to his father's orders in order to become the great man he wanted him to become.  His father accepts this and pays the ransom and later Juan has started to take his father's advice. He got married and settled down.

But as he settled down he started to try and make himself unique. He listened to his father, getting married, settling down, trying to get a stable job. But his father also wanted grandchildren which he refused to give him. His father also wanted him to go into finance or government and stay near by him but instead Juan luis decided to become a writer. He also moved to the middle east and lived there for a while.

Juan Luis does all this because he wants to find his happiness, in his own way. As discussed in class, Juan luis was happy with his life before the kidnapping. He lived life the way he wanted to without much care in the world. He did not want to follow his father's advice because he did not think that he would live a happy life like that. But once he was kidnapped, he was forced to bend his way of living in order to make his father happy. He no longer could live the way he wanted too because he wanted to please his father. He felt indebted to his father for saving him so he wanted to please him. So he changed his way of life to please him, and in a lesser extent society.