Miss Julie begins with the valet Jean bragging to the cook Christine that he danced with the

Count's daughter
Miss Julie. Despite Jean's warning that people will gossip about them dancing together she invites him to a
party. This disapproval was mirrored in the reaction of many audiences who considered a relationship based on
lust rather than love and one between an upper class woman and lower class man to be scandalous.

Miss Julie asks Jean if he has ever been in love and he lies and says he was in love with her when he was
younger to the point he attempted suicide. Miss Julie asks him to take her to the lake, but they are interrupted
by guests and go to his room. After they return to the kitchen Jean says it is impossible to stay at the manor
because of the gossip.

Jean and Miss Julie plan to flee, but Christine reminds Jean that he said he would go to church with her.
Afterwards the Count returns and Miss Julie begs Jean to leave with her. Christine who is dedicated to the
social hierarchy and is angry at Jean and Miss Julie for upsetting it then says she will have the stable boy
prevent them from leaving. Miss Julie asks Jean to place her in a "hypnoid state" which was associated with
female hysterics and lead her to her death.

1. You're making me a coward I thought I saw the bell move Afraid of a bell! But it isn't just a bell. There's
somebody behind it. A hand that makes it move. And there's something that makes the hand move.—
Stop your ears, that's it, stop your ears! But it only rings louder.
2. Maybe at bottom there isn't such a great difference between people as we think.

MISS JULIE

an analysis of the play by August Strindberg

The following essay was originally published in The Social Significance of the Modern Drama. Emma
Goldman. Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1914. pp. 51-61.

IN his masterly preface to this play, August Strindberg writes: "The fact that my tragedy makes a sad
impression on many is the fault of the many. When we become strong, as were the first French revolutionaries,
it will make an exclusively pleasant and cheerful impression to see the royal parks cleared of rotting,
superannuated trees which have too long stood in the way of others with equal right to vegetate their full
lifetime; it will make a good impression in the same sense as does the sight of the death of an incurable."

What a wealth of revolutionary thought -- were we to realize that those who will clear society of the rotting,
superannuated trees that have so long been standing in the way of others entitled to an equal share in life, must
be as strong as the great revolutionists of the past!

Indeed, Strindberg is no trimmer, no cheap reformer, no patchworker; therefore his inability to remain fixed, or
to content himself with accepted truths. Therefore also, his great versatility, his deep grasp of the subtlest
phases of life. Was he not forever the seeker, the restless spirit roaming the earth, ever in the death-throes of the
Old, to give birth to the New? How, then, could he be other than relentless and grim and brutally frank?

Miss Julie, a one-act tragedy, is no doubt a brutally frank portrayal of the most intimate thoughts of man and of
the age-long antagonism between classes. Brutally frank, because August Strindberg strips both of their glitter,
their sham and pretense, that we may see that "at bottom there's not so much difference between people and --
people."

Who in modern dramatic art is there to teach us that lesson with the insight of an August Strindberg? He who
had been tossed about all his life between the decadent traditions of his aristocratic father and the grim, sordid
reality of the class of his mother. He who had been begotten through the physical mastery of his father and the
physical subserviency of his mother. Verily, Strindberg knew whereof he spoke -- for he spoke with his soul, a
language whose significance is illuminating, compelling.

Miss Julie inherited the primitive, intense passion of her mother and the neurotic aristocratic tendencies of her
father. Added to this heritage is the call of the wild, the "intense summer heat when the blood turns to fire, and
when all are in a holiday spirit, full of gladness, and rank is flung aside." Miss Julie feels, when too late, that
the barrier of rank reared through the ages, by wealth and power, is not flung aside with impunity. Therein the
vicious brutality, the boundless injustice of rank.

The people on the estate of Julie's father are celebrating St. John's Eve with dance, song and revelry. The Count
is absent, and Julie graciously mingles with the servants. But once having tasted the simple abandon of the
people, once having thrown off the artifice and superficiality of her aristocratic decorum, her suppressed
passions leap into full flame, and Julie throws herself into the arms of her father's valet, Jean -- not because of
love for the man, nor yet openly and freely, but as persons of her station may do when carried away by the
moment.

The woman in Julie pursues the male, follows him into the kitchen, plays with him as with a pet dog, and then
feigns indignation when Jean, aroused, makes advances. How dare he, the servant, the lackey, even insinuate
that she would have him! "I, the lady of the house! I honor the people with my presence. I, in love with my
coachman? I, who step down."

How well Strindberg knows the psychology of the upper classes! How well he understands that their
graciousness, their charity, their interest in the "common people" is, after all, nothing but arrogance, blind
conceit of their own importance and ignorance of the character of the people.

Even though Jean is a servant, he has his pride, he has his dreams. "I was not hired to be your plaything," he
says to Julie; "I think too much of myself for that."

Strange, is it not, that those who serve and drudge for others, should think so much of themselves as to refuse to
be played with? Stranger still that they should indulge in dreams. Jean says:

Do you know how people in high life look from the under-world?... They look like hawks and eagles whose
backs one seldom sees, for they soar up above. I lived in a hovel provided by the State, with seven brothers and
sisters and a pig; out on a barren stretch where nothing grew, not even a tree, but from the window I could see
the Count's park walls with apple trees rising above them. That was the garden of paradise; and there stood
many angry angels with flaming swords protecting it; but for all that I and other boys found the way to the tree
of life -- now you despise me.... I thought if it is true that the thief on the cross could enter heaven and dwell
among the angels it was strange that a pauper child on God's earth could not go into the castle park and play
with the Countess' daughter.... What I wanted -- I don't know. You were unattainable, but through the vision of
you I was made to realize how hopeless it was to rise above the conditions of my birth.

What rich food for thought in the above for all of us, and for the Jeans, the people who do not know what they
want, yet feel the cruelty of a world that keeps the pauper's child out of the castle of his dreams, away from joy
and play and beauty! The injustice and the bitterness of it all, that places the stigma of birth as an impassable
obstacle, a fatal imperative excluding one from the table of life, with the result of producing such terrible
effects on the Julies and the Jeans. The one unnerved, made helpless and useless by affluence, ease and
idleness; the other enslaved and bound by service and dependence. Even when Jean wants to, he cannot rise
above his condition. When Julie asks him to embrace her, to love her, he replies:

I can't as long as we are in this house.... There is the Count, your father.... I need only to see his gloves lying in
a chair to feel my own insignificance. I have only to hear his bell, to start like a nervous horse.... And now that I
see his boots standing there so stiff and proper, I feel like bowing and scraping.... I can't account for it but -- but
ah, it is that damned servant in my back -- I believe if the Count came here now, and told me to cut my throat, I
would do it on the spot.... Superstition and prejudice taught in childhood can't be uprooted in a moment.
No, superstition and prejudice cannot be uprooted in a moment; nor in years. The awe of authority, servility
before station and wealth -- these are the curse of the Jean class that makes such cringing slaves of them.
Cringing before those who are above them, tyrannical and over-bearing toward those who are below them. For
Jean has the potentiality of the master in him as much as that of the slave. Yet degrading as "the damned
servant" reacts upon Jean, it is much more terrible in its effect upon Kristin, the cook, the dull, dumb animal
who has so little left of the spirit of independence that she has lost even the ambition to rise above her
condition. Thus when Kristin, the betrothed of Jean, discovers that her mistress Julie had given herself to him,
she is indignant that her lady should have so much forgotten her station as to stoop to her father's valet.

KRISTIN: I don't want to be here in this house any longer where one cannot respect one's betters.
JEAN: Why should one respect them?
KRISTIN: Yes, you can say that, you are so smart. But I don't want to serve people who behave so. It reflects
on oneself, I think.
JEAN: Yes, but it's a comfort that they're not a bit better than we.
KRISTIN: No, I don't think so, for if they are not better there's no use in our trying to better ourselves in this
world. And to think of the Count! Think of him who has had so much sorrow all his days. No, I don't want to
stay in this house any longer! And to think of it being with such as you! If it has been the Lieutenant -- ... I have
never lowered my position. Let any one say, if they can, that the Count's cook has had anything to do with the
riding master or the swineherd. Let them come and say it!

Such dignity and morality are indeed pathetic, because they indicate how completely serfdom may annihilate
even the longing for something higher and better in the breast of a human being. The Kristins represent the
greatest obstacle to social growth, the deadlock in the conflict between the classes. On the other hand, the
Jeans, with all their longing for higher possibilities, often become brutalized in the hard school of life; though
in the conflict with Julie, Jean shows brutality only at the critical moment, when it becomes a question of life
and death, a moment that means discovery and consequent ruin, or safety for both.

Jean, though the male is aroused in him, pleads with Julie not to play with fire, begs her to return to her room,
and not to give the servants a chance for gossip. And when later Jean suggests his room for a hiding place that
Julie may escape the approaching merry-makers, it is to save her from their songs full of insinuation and
ribaldry. Finally when the inevitable happens, when as the result of their closeness in Jean's room, of their
overwrought nerves, their intense passion, the avalanche of sex sweeps them off their feet, forgetful of station,
birth and conventions, and they return to the kitchen, it is again Jean who is willing to bear his share of the
responsibility. "I don't care to shirk my share of the blame," he tells Julie, "but do you think any one of my
position would have dared to raise his eyes to you if you had not invited it?"

There is more truth in this statement than the Julies can grasp, namely, that even servants have their passions
and feelings that cannot long be trifled with, with impunity. The Jeans know "that it is the glitter of brass, not
gold, that dazzles us from below, and that the eagle's back is gray like the rest of him." For Jean says, "I'm sorry
to have to realize that all that I have looked up to is not worth while, and it pains me to see you fallen lower
than your cook, as it pains me to see autumn blossoms whipped to pieces by the cold rain and transformed into
-- dirt!"

It is this force that helps to transform the blossom into dirt that August Strindberg emphasizes in The Father.
For the child born against the will of its parents must also be without will, and too weak to bear the stress and
storm of life. In Miss Julie this idea recurs with even more tragic effect. Julie, too, had been brought into the
world against her mother's wishes. Indeed, so much did her mother dread the thought of a child that she "was
always ill, she often had cramps and acted queerly, often hiding in the orchard or the attic." Added to this
horror was the conflict, the relentless war of traditions between Julie's aristocratic father and her mother
descended from the people. This was the heritage of the innocent victim, Julie -- an autumn blossom blown into
fragments by lack of stability, lack of love and lack of harmony. In other words, while Julie is broken and
weakened by her inheritance and environment, Jean is hardened by his.

When Jean kills the bird which Julie wants to rescue from the ruins of her life, it is not so much out of real
cruelty, as it is because the character of Jean was molded in the relentless school of necessity, in which only
those survive who have the determination to act in time of danger. For as Jean says, "Miss Julie, I see that you
are unhappy, I know that you are suffering, but I cannot understand you. Among my kind there is no nonsense
of this sort. We love as we play -- when work gives us time. We haven't the whole day and night for it as you."

Here we have the key to the psychology of the utter helplessness and weakness of the Julie type, and the
brutality of the Jeans. The one, the result of an empty life, of parasitic leisure, of a useless, purposeless
existence. The other, the effect of too little time for development, for maturity and depth; of too much toil to
permit the growth of the finer traits in the human soul.

August Strindberg, himself the result of the class conflict between his parents, never felt at home with either of
them. All his life he was galled by the irreconcilability of the classes; and though he was no sermonizer in the
sense of offering a definite panacea for individual or social ills, yet with master touch he painted the degrading
effects of class distinction and its tragic antagonisms. In Miss Julie he popularized one of the most vital
problems of our age, and gave to the world a work powerful in its grasp of elemental emotions, laying bare the
human soul behind the mask of social tradition and class culture.

Themes
.
Theme 1 A woman’s attempt to overcome the gender, cultural, and environmental forces acting upon her
brings about her downfall. Miss Julie first orders her fiancé to perform a silly trick, like a trained dog, and loses
him. She then crosses forbidden social and sexual boundaries and ends up losing her life to her own hysteria,
paranoia, and panic. 
Theme 2 The centuries-old barrier between the aristocracy and the common folk is beginning to collapse. Miss
Julie, confused about her social and cultural identity, attends a barn dance for servants, drinks beer instead of
wine, and submits sexually to a valet, Jean.  Jean learns French, drinks wine, speaks of purchasing a title to
elevate his status, and sometimes treats Miss Julie as an inferior. But he, too, exhibits a measure of confusion
about his role, indicated by his willingness to snap to the commands of the count. The cook, Christine, does not
venture outside her traditional role as a menial, indicating that the old system—though dying—is dying
grudgingly. 
Theme 3 All men and women are mercurial creatures, sometimes acting impulsively in response to hereditary
and environmental influences on them. Both Miss Julie and Jean act unpredictably from time to time,
suggesting a certain course of action one moment and disavowing it the next. 
Theme 4 Every man and woman is psychologically and physiologically complex. This theme is similar to
Theme 3. Often, it is not clear which motive rules a person at any given time. Is it lust that motivates Jean to
invite Julie to his room? Or does he want to lower her to a reduced social status? Is it cruelty? Is it the desire to
dominate? Does Miss Julie kill herself out of fear of her father? Or does she do it out of wounded pride,
loneliness, or a feeling of powerlessness in a male-dominated world?
Theme 5 Only the fittest survive. Unlike Jean and Christine, Miss Julie fails to adapt to the circumstances over
which, ultimately, she has little or no control. This Darwinian motif is in keeping with Strindberg's literary
naturalism. 

Climax
.
.......The climax of a play or another narrative work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as (1) the
turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most
exciting event in a series of events. The climax of Miss Julie occurs, according to the first definition, when
Miss Julie accepts Jean's invitation to go to his room. (Their conversation when they later return to the kitchen
implies that they had sexual relations in the room. However, because Strindberg does not depict this implied
encounter on the stage, it cannot technically be regarded as the climax of the play. Consequently, it is Julie's
decision to go to the room that is the turning point of the play.) According to the second definition, the climax
occurs when Miss Julie takes up Jean's razor to commit suicide.
.
Symbolism
..
Symbols in Miss Julie (according to Cummings Study Guides’ interpretation of the play) include the following: 

Miss Julie's Dog

.......Miss Julie’s dog, Diana, mates with the gatekeeper’s pug and becomes pregnant. Diana symbolizes Miss
Julie, an aristocrat; the pug symbolizes Jean, a commoner. The mating of the two dogs foreshadows the sexual
union of Miss Julie and Jean.

The Remedy for the Dog

.......Christine makes a "remedy" for the dog. When Jean asks about it, Christine explains in euphemistic
language that the concoction she is cooking will abort the unborn offspring that developed when Diana mated
with the pug. The concoction symbolizes the “easy way out” that Miss Julie seeks in order to overcome the
shame resulting from her sexual encounter with Jean. 

The Horsewhip

.......Miss Julie makes her fiancé jump over a horsewhip. This action symbolizes hers desire to dominate men,
whom her mother brought her up to despise. 

Wine

.......Jean drinks wine, a claret. It symbolizes the upper classes, to which he aspires. 

Beer and Wine

.......Miss Julie drinks beer, a lower-class drink, and wine, an upper-class drink, symbolizing  her confusion
about her self-identity. Her mother came from the lower class and her father, the count, from the upper class. 

The Handkerchief

.......Christine smells the handkerchief left behind by Miss Julie, then folds it, actions symbolizing her curiosity
about the upper classes (the smelling) and her acceptance of her status as menial (the folding). 

The Hawk

.......Because it soars above the earth looking for prey, the hawk symbolizes the status of the upper class and its
exploitation of the lower class. 

The Caged Finch. 

.......The caged finch symbolizes Miss Julie, who is a prisoner of her heredity and environment. Jean’s killing of
the finch with an axe foreshadows Miss Julie’s killing of herself with Jean’s razor. 

Boots and the bell. 

.......The counts boots and bell are symbols of the authority of the count, to whom both Miss Julie and Jean must
answer. 

Razor

.......The razor with which Jean shaves and with which Miss Julie kills herself is a male instrument that
symbolizes the fatal power of males over Miss Julie.
Dog, Finch

These animals symbolize Miss Julie. The dog, Diana, mates with a mongrel, representing Miss Julie's sexual
intercourse with Jean, a valet. Jean later kills the bird and provides Miss Julie the razor that she uses to kill
herself. 
.

Irony

.......Miss Julie says her mother believed strongly in women's rights and women's independence. However, her
mother appeared to be just as tyrannical as the men she despised in her effort to force Julie into a precast mold.
Julie tells Jean,

My mother wanted to bring me up in a perfectly natural state, and at the same time I was to learn everything
that a boy is taught, so that I might prove that a woman is just as good as a man. I was dressed as a boy, and
was taught how to handle a horse, but could have nothing to do with the cows. I had to groom and harness and
go hunting on horseback. I was even forced to learn something about agriculture.
Allusions: Don Juan, Joseph
.
.......While Miss Julie trifles with Jean, she suggests that he may be a “Don Juan” or a “Joseph.” 
.......Don Juan was a fictional womanizer in Spanish folk tales who seduced a young woman of Seville and
killed her father in a duel. Later, the spirit of the father, springing to life from a statue of him, gained revenge
by taking Don Juan to hell. The first published account of the tale was a 1630 play, The Seducer of Seville,
believed to have been written by Tirso de Molina. Subsequently, Don Juan became the central character in
numerous other works, including Molière’s Don Juan, or The Stone Feast (1665), Thomas Shadwell’s The
Libertine (1675), Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1787), Lord Byron’s Don Juan (1819-1824), and Shaw’s Man and
Superman (1903). 
.......Joseph is a biblical figure who refused to yield to a woman’s temptation. The story of the incident and its
consequences is in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 39, Verses 1-23. Here is what happened: While in Egypt,
Joseph works for Potiphar, the Pharaoh’s chief steward. Potiphar’s wife is attracted to Joseph, a very handsome
man, and repeatedly attempts to seduce him. Just as often, he rejects her advances. In retaliation, Potiphar’s
wife tells her husband that Joseph tried to ravish her, and Potiphar imprisons Joseph. Joseph later gains his
freedom after interpreting the Pharaoh’s dream.
.

Miss Julie as a Naturalistic Tragedy

.
.......Strindberg labeled Miss Julie a naturalistic tragedy–that is, a tragedy that adheres to principles of a literary
movement called naturalism. 

Naturalism

.......Naturalism developed in France in the 19th Century as an extreme form of realism. It was inspired in part
by the scientific determinism of Charles Darwin, an Englishman, and the economic determinism of Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels, both Germans. Four Frenchmen—Hippolyte Taine, Edmond and Jules Goncourt, and
Emile Zola—applied the principles of scientific and economic determinism to literature to create literary
naturalism. According to its followers, literary naturalism has the following basic tenets: 

(1) Heredity and environment are the major forces that shape human beings. In other words, like lower
animals, humans respond mainly to inborn instincts that influence behavior in concert with—and
sometimes in opposition to—environmental influences, including economic, social, cultural, and
familial influences. Miss Julie, for example, responds partly to her inborn female instinct for male
companionship and partly to her environmentally induced hatred of men. Consequently, she both
desires and despises Jean, causing her deep internal conflict. 
(2) Human beings have no free will, or very little of it, because heredity and environment are so
 powerful in determining the course of human action. 
(3) Human beings, like lower animals, have no soul. Religion and morality are irrelevant. (Strindberg,
an atheist when he wrote Miss Julie, later converted to Christianity under the influence of the writings
of Emanuel Swedenborg.) 
(4) A literary work should present life exactly as it is, without preachment, judgment, or embellishment.
In this respect, naturalism is akin to realism. However, naturalism goes further than realism in that it
presents a more detailed picture of everyday life. Whereas the realist writer omits insignificant details
when depicting a particular scene, a naturalist writer generally includes them. He wants the scene to be
as “natural” as possible. The naturalist writer also attempts to be painstakingly objective and detached.
Rather than manipulating characters as if they were puppets, the naturalist writer prefers to observe the
characters as if they were animals in the wild and then report on their activity. Finally, naturalism
attempts to present dialogue as spoken in everyday life. Rather than putting “unnatural” wording in the
mouth of a character, the naturalist writer attempts to reproduce the speech patterns of people in a
particular time and place.
.......Naturalist writers generally achieve only limited success in adhering to Tenet 4. The main problem is that it
is next to impossible for a writer to remain objective and detached, like a scientist in a laboratory. After all, a
scientist analyzes existing natural objects and phenomena. A naturalist writer, on the other hand, analyzes
characters he created; they may be based on real people, but they themselves are not real. Thus, in bringing
these characters to the stage or the printed page, the naturalist writer brings a part of himself—a subjective part.
Also, in their use of literary devices—such as Strindberg’s use of  symbols in Miss Julie to support his theme–
naturalist writers again inject their subjective selves into the play. In real life, would Miss Julie own a dog that
mates with a pug, symbolizing and foreshadowing her brief sexual encounter with Jean? Would she force her
fiancé to jump over a horsewhip that symbolizes her effort to dominate him?. 
.
Tragedy

.......Miss Julie is a tragedy because Miss Julie suffers a downfall (suicide). However, it is not a tragedy in the
traditional sense. Here’s why. In a classical Greek play, such as Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, a character falls to
ruin in part because of an error or lapse in moral judgment. But in Strindberg’s play, Miss Julie’s downfall
results from the irresistible forces (heredity and environment) acting upon her. It can be argued that she errs
when she chooses to stray across sexual and social boundaries. But Strindberg would probably counter that the
error resulted from the instinctual and environmental forces that drive her, not from a moral or rational
decision. She is like a moth attracted to a fatal flame.

Why Jean Incites Miss Julie to Suicide

.
.......Although this question is open to interpretation, it appears at first glance that Jean–who has proven himself
intelligent and crafty–worries that the count will find out about his sexual encounter with Miss Julie and fire
him. To save his job, Jean encourages the only witness to his misdeed to kill herself. That Jean plans to remain
in the employ of the count—and refuse Christine’s invitation to go elsewhere to start a new life—is supported
by Jean’s deferential response to the count’s orders in the final action of the play.

Man-woman relationship in Miss Julie.

    Miss Julie explores a complex man- woman relationship along gender and class lines. It is the woman who
turns out to be defeated and degenerated. It is the values of the patriarchy that have given women a subordinate
position in the imbalanced relationship. Miss Julie is degenerated after having physical contact because she is a
woman and the man is all right. It is the fear of her father’s arrival that makes her restless and frantic. Though
rebellious to some extent their lives are manipulated by males and the male authority frightens them.
    Miss Julie falls morally after she sleeps with Jean. Since she is a woman, she is the victim of this relation.
The male uses her and is free and safe. It is she who is degenerate not him. It shows the functioning of
patriarchy. He is living with constant fear of her father who represents the male authority. He is the father
figure and his presence and impending arrival is a source of constant fear and humiliation for Miss Julie.
Though Miss Julie tries to give orders to Jean her orders don’t work because she is a fallen woman now. The
fact that she is a woman makes her a defeated person. Even though Jean has badly used her she is not in a
position to challenge him openly because in the eyes of the patriarchal society she is a sinner not the man.
There is no genuine love between her and Jean because their relation is guided by sex and money. Jean also
sexually exploits Christine. Thus the man woman relationship is lopsided and the women are the underdogs
manipulated and used by males.

olutionary and rebellious elements in Miss Julie.

Miss Julie is a groundbreaking drama. It was a revolutionary drama because of its shockingly frank and frankly
shocking portrayal of sexuality. The really audacious and adventurous strength of Strindberg lies in his
successful portrayal of loveless sex. It is he who first ran the great risk to portray sex as an act distinct from
love. He refers to the loveless sex act in the play. He does not directly depict it on stage. To portray sex as
distinct from love was really a shocking and revolutionary endeavour of the playwright. At that time sex was
held to be an expression of love. People of that time were totally alien to the notion of loveless sex. This notion
of loveless sex, sex in the absence of love was pretty scandalous to them. Due to this totally scandalous break
through in the genre of the 19th century play, Miss Julie was considered as important facet of modern drama.
By portraying frankly the idea of intercourse based completely on lust Strindberg sought to demonstrate the
strength of sexual desires.
    The play concentrates on the downfall of the aristocratic Miss Julie, a misfit in her society. Julie fought
against the restrictions placed on her as a woman and as a member of the upper class. From the beginning of the
play, her behaviour is shown to alienate her peer class and shock the servants. She displays a blatant disregard
for class and gender conventions, at one moment claiming that class differences should not exist and the next
demanding proper treatment as a woman of aristocracy. Her antics result in her social downfall, a loss of
respect from her servants and ultimately, her suicide.
As a naturalistic play, Miss Julie focuses on Julie and Jean’s struggle for survival in their society.

Los Vendidos means the sell-outs. All the characters in the play (by Luis Valdez) sold out at some point during the play. The
characters sold out both their races and their way of life. I would say that the person who sold out the most was the Mexican-
American because he sold out both his Mexican and American heritage and way of life. He wanted to be perfect, so when he found
that Americans and Mexicans had their flaws he sold them both out. He now has to search for a new and perfect race to identify with.
(He will be searching for a while.)

The Mexican-American sold out his Mexican Heritage when he said, "The problems of the Mexicans stem from one thing alone he's
stupid, he is under-educated, he needs to stay in school. He needs to be ambitious and be forward looking, most important he needs to
think American" (Page 382).

In his statement he is only finding the bad of his people and stating it for the entire room to hear. He shows great disrespect for the
Mexican heritage by saying all that is wrong with them. He shows their flaws, weaknesses, and imperfections.

I believe your heritage makes up who you are and that is you, so you should never disrespect yourself by disrespecting your heritage.
I believe the way he sold out was by disrespecting his heritage. The Mexican-American is still trying to decide whether he is going to
live Mexican or American. When the Mexican-American says, "The only thing I don't like is how come I always got to play the
goddamn Mexican-American" (Page-384).

You are unsure by this statement whether he is selling out his Mexican or his American lifestyle. You know he wants to perfect
because of his attitude toward playing the part of the Mexican-American.

The Mexican American doesn't know where he wants to go in life. I guess this proves no matter how old you are or how much of an
education you have, you sell people out and walk all over them.

Even if it is a person you know or need; all that does not matter if you are a sell-out. You will hurt people to get what you want for
yourself.

The Mexican-American is soon going to find he will never find perfection and he will be lost with no friends because of all the people
he sold out. The Mexican-American and his buddies need to set constructive goals or all they will have to talk about is being sell-outs
with no friends.