the circuit book essay

The Circuit

Francisco jiménez, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Francisco Jiménez's The Circuit . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Circuit: Introduction

The circuit: plot summary, the circuit: detailed summary & analysis, the circuit: themes, the circuit: quotes, the circuit: characters, the circuit: terms, the circuit: symbols, the circuit: theme wheel, brief biography of francisco jiménez.

Historical Context of The Circuit

Other books related to the circuit.

• Full Title: The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child
• Where Written: California
• When Published: 1997
• Literary Period: Contemporary
• Genre: Autobiographical Novel; Short Story Collection
• Setting: California in the mid-20th century
• Climax: Francisco’s family finally settles down in the town of Santa Maria, California
• Antagonist: Discrimination; poverty; immigration agents
• Point of View: First Person

Extra Credit for The Circuit

The Jiménez School. The Jiménez family settled in Santa Maria, California when they returned to the United States legally after they were deported. Today, there is an elementary school in Santa Maria called the Roberto and Dr. Francisco Jiménez Elementary School, named after the author and his older brother who worked as janitors for the school district while they pursued their educations.

Almost Memoir. Jiménez calls The Circuit “autobiographical fiction” rather than memoir, because it is “approximately 90 percent fact and 10 percent fiction.” However, the final scene of the novel—in which Francisco is picked up by immigration agents just as he is getting ready to recite the Declaration of Independence—happened exactly as he describes in the book.

• The Circuit: Stories From the Life of a Migrant Child Summary

by Francisco Jimenez

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The Jimenez family of five has heard of the promising work and living conditions in California, so they decide to uproot from their family home in Mexico. They join the thousands of migrant workers who move around California. At first they are excited, but the new lifestyle soon takes a toll on all of them. They move frequently, following a circuit from Corocoran for cotton picking to Santa Maria for strawberries and to Fresno for grapes, repeating almost endlessly.

As a child, Francisco, the protagonist, adapts fairly well to his changing environment. He attends school for a few months out of the year, but he's constantly moving. He struggles to learn English and make good grades since he's working most of the time and seemingly always changing schools. At his first school in Santa Maria, he accidentally gets into a fight which brings great shame to his family. They almost refuse to allow him to return to school, but he makes it. He discovers a newfound love for art at that school, even winning a prize.

Right about this time baby Torito is born and becomes ill. The family is desperate to save him, but his odds are slim considering they have barely enough money for food much less doctors. Luckily Torito survives. He's soon joined by Ruben and Rorra, two more healthy little babies. The rapidly expanding family is very tight-knit. They really love one another and take time to find joy in the midst of their difficult lives. One day they adopt a pet parrot who sticks with the family for some time until Papa accidentally kills him.

Francisco really hits his stride in school. Despite the frequent moves, he is finding an inner talent for the learning. He devotes more and more time to his studies, starting a notebook in which he keeps track of all of his assignments. In one school, he becomes friends with his teacher, Mr. Lema . This man has such a profound impact on the lonely boy that he inspires him to keep trying to attend school even after he becomes old enough to work with his older brother and parents in the fields. Of course, the relationship doesn't last, but Francisco redoubles his efforts in school afterwards.

The book ends with a series of tragedies. For Francisco, a cautious, thoughtful child, his possessions are his pride. He takes great care of his belongings and is especially fond of his penny collection. Unforgivably his sister uses his pennies to buy gum balls one day, and he's devastated. Not long after, the Jimenez' house burns down. They are all safe, but all of their possessions are lost, including Francisco's notebook. Missing the notes, he tries to remain optimistic and to keep progressing as best he can in school. After losing their house, the family moves back to Santa Maria again. Here Francisco really pours his best efforts into school, hoping to use his education to make his family money someday soon. Out of the blue one day border patrol shows up to his school. Since he isn't a legal citizen of the United States, Francisco is deported back to Mexico without question. He doesn't even have time to tell his family or to know what fate befalls them.

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The Circuit: Stories From the Life of a Migrant Child Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Circuit: Stories From the Life of a Migrant Child is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

which of the following selections most closely explains why francisco is sad in the following passage

What particular passage in the story are you referring to?

Which inference about Robert is best supported by the text?

I'm sorry, you will need to provide the text in question, as well as the answer choices you were provided in order for us to help you.

Why can't Papa work anymore?

Papa is unable to work because of a back injury.

Study Guide for The Circuit: Stories From the Life of a Migrant Child

The Circuit: Stories From the Life of a Migrant Child study guide contains a biography of Francisco Jimenez, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Circuit: Stories From the Life of a Migrant Child
• Character List

Wikipedia Entries for The Circuit: Stories From the Life of a Migrant Child

• Introduction

Cajas de Carton (The Circuit)

89 pages • 2 hours read

Cajas de Carton

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Before You Read

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“Under the Wire” and “Soledad”

“Inside Out” and “Miracle in Tent City”

“El Angel de Oro” and “Christmas Gift”

“Death Forgiven” and “Cotton Sack”

“The Circuit” and “Learning the Game”

“To Have and to Hold” and “Moving Still”

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

In “Inside Out,” why does Jimenez give Curtis his award-winning drawing? What does this reveal about Jimenez's character, and the lessons he has learned about pride, privilege, and charity since arriving in California?

In what ways does Jimenez and Roberto's shared vision of California differ from their experience living in tents and migrant camps with their family? How does their idea of California change over the course of the collection?

How is Jimenez's early life defined by the language barrier he experiences? In what ways does he fight against this barrier? How does it alienate him and his family?

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Related Titles

By Francisco Jiménez

Breaking Through

Francisco Jiménez

Reaching Out

The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child

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Childhood & Youth

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Hispanic & Latinx American Literature

Electric Realms: the Circuit Book

This essay about “The Circuit” explores a world where reality and virtuality intertwine seamlessly. Through intricate storytelling, it invites readers into a realm where imagination and technology converge. Each chapter functions as a circuit board, weaving together tales of adventure, mystery, and discovery. At its core, “The Circuit” celebrates human ingenuity and the boundless possibilities of technology, while also addressing darker themes such as power dynamics and privacy concerns. What sets it apart is its interactive nature, with hidden puzzles challenging readers to uncover deeper layers of the narrative. As readers deeper, they realize the blurred lines between fiction and reality, as the story seems to transcend the confines of the page. Ultimately, “The Circuit” is more than just a book; it’s an immersive experience that challenges readers to rethink their assumptions and embrace the limitless potential of the human imagination.

How it works

In a world where the lines between reality and virtuality blur, where the digital realm intertwines seamlessly with the physical, lies the realm of “The Circuit.” It’s not just a book but a gateway to an alternate dimension, a conduit between worlds where imagination dances with technology. As the pages turn, readers are transported into a labyrinth of circuits, where every word pulses with electric energy and every sentence ignites the imagination.

“The Circuit” isn’t your ordinary book. It’s a narrative experience, a journey that transcends the boundaries of conventional storytelling.

Each chapter is a circuit board, intricately designed to weave together tales of adventure, mystery, and discovery. From the neon-lit streets of cyberpunk metropolises to the serene landscapes of virtual paradises, the stories within “The Circuit” unfold like a tapestry of dreams.

At its core, “The Circuit” is a celebration of human ingenuity and the endless possibilities of technology. Through its pages, readers are invited to explore the frontiers of innovation, to witness the birth of artificial intelligence, to delve into the mysteries of quantum computing, and to ponder the ethical dilemmas posed by advanced biotechnology. But amidst the awe-inspiring marvels of science and engineering, “The Circuit” also delves into the darker aspects of technology – the dangers of unchecked power, the erosion of privacy, and the existential threats posed by runaway automation.

Yet, “The Circuit” is more than just a cautionary tale. It’s a call to action, a reminder that the future is not set in stone, that the choices we make today will shape the world of tomorrow. Through its characters – brilliant inventors, daring hackers, and visionary leaders – “The Circuit” explores themes of resilience, adaptability, and the indomitable human spirit. It reminds us that even in the face of adversity, there is always hope – hope for redemption, hope for progress, and hope for a better tomorrow.

But perhaps what truly sets “The Circuit” apart is its interactive nature. Embedded within its pages are hidden puzzles, cryptographic codes, and interactive simulations, challenging readers to become active participants in the narrative. With each puzzle solved and code cracked, readers unlock new layers of the story, revealing hidden truths and unraveling the mysteries of “The Circuit.”

As readers journey deeper into the heart of “The Circuit,” they begin to realize that the line between fiction and reality is not as clear-cut as it seems. Strange coincidences abound, and echoes of the narrative reverberate in the world around them. It’s as if “The Circuit” is reaching out, blurring the boundaries between the physical and the digital, inviting readers to become part of something greater than themselves.

In the end, “The Circuit” is more than just a book – it’s an experience, a journey into the unknown, a glimpse into the future that awaits us. It challenges us to question our assumptions, to confront our fears, and to embrace the infinite possibilities of the human imagination. For within the circuits and code of “The Circuit” lies the blueprint for a world limited only by the boundaries of our imagination.

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The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child Essay Topics & Writing Assignments

Essay Topic 1

How does the life of a migrant farm worker differ from your own life? Please use examples from the book to support your ideas.

Essay Topic 2

Shame and propriety are common themes throughout this book. What are some of the instances where these themes are present, and why are they so important to the people involved?

Essay Topic 3

What did Francisco learn most from moving around so much with his family, and how did that affect the tone of the book?

Essay Topic 4

What are some of the key examples of gratitude in this book, and how do these instances affect that people involved in those scenes?

Essay Topic 5

Personal identity was one of the main themes in this book. Where did this theme appear, and how did its inclusion in the novel shape the course of the plot?

Essay Topic 6

Why was the ending so...

(read more Essay Topics)

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Character Analysis

Did we forget to mention that there's a superhero in this tale? Because there kind of is: Mamá is the super woman of The Circuit . She's married to Papá, and by the end of the book she's got six kiddos—plus she works all day from dawn to dusk. No really. Check this out:

To make ends meet, Mamá cooked for twenty farm workers who lived in Tent City. She made their lunches and had supper ready for them when they returned from picking strawberries at the end of the day. She would get up at four o'clock every morning, seven days a week, to make the tortillas for both meals. […] Around three o'clock she would start cooking dinner, which was served from six to seven. […] On Saturdays, she did all of the grocery shopping for the week. (4.4)

That's super impressive, right? Mamá is one of the hardest working characters in this book. She's got a full schedule all day every day whether it's cooking for the workers or taking care of her family, and she spends tons of time working in the fields picking crops too. And we never hear her complain. Not once.

The other thing that makes Mamá seriously awesome is her wisdom. Francisco and the whole family go through lots of struggles, and Mamá helps them all to gain some perspective. So when Rorra takes Francisco's pennies, she's right there with a story to make Francisco feel better, and when his note pad burns up, she helps him see the bright side. Now that's one smarty-pants lady.

Mamá plays a super central role in her family, doing everything she can to provide for her children and help them lead happy lives. Call her what you will—their rock, the family's spine, or just plain super woman—but one thing's certain: she's one seriously awesome lady.

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Good Essay On The Circuit By Francisco Jimenez

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Literature , Immigration , Human Resource Management , Childhood , Family , Life , Parents , Father

Published: 02/22/2020

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The main theme of the story by Francisco Jimenez is childhood, or at least the lack of it in the case of the narrator. He worked with his father in fields, and most of the characters were his immediate family. It shows how migrant workers and their children put in twelve hours a day just to feed their families. The narrator does this in a mundane kind of way, like it was nothing unusual for him. Since he was a child, there was nothing else that he knew other than the life that he lived, traveling around with his family. He was detached from everything else, not because he wanted to be, but because he didn’t have a choice. There were three very important resounding themes in the story: family bond, poverty and separation. These three themes tie into the main theme of the childhood being stripped away from migrant workers’ families in a way that seems alarmingly natural and common. The first theme of family is seen very early on in the story. The narrator loves his family very much, and would do anything to help them out. He respects his father and looks up to him, even though it is not directly said in the book. It is obvious that the family does not have that much, yet the narrator does not complain. He doesn’t even mention it by using direct words. He uses imagery to describe their situation. However, you still see that they are happy being together. They help each other out, and they have a tight bond with each other.

“Papa then insisted on knowing who the original owner was” (Jimenez 1.8)

He loves his brother, Roberto, in the story, he even says that he felt bad that Roberto was not able to go to school during the season that he was. He empathized with Roberto and even had second thoughts about it. This showed that he really cared about the feelings of his brother over his own. The fact that he would help his father no matter what their situation is was sad, yet amazing. He showed no sign of shame because of their situation, and not once did he complain. He rejoiced in the little things in life, and he was very appreciative. In the 20th paragraph, he said that his mother cooked his favorite meal, and he was very happy about this.

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The Circuit Essay

Families are the most important aspect of people’s lives. They teach their children about life and to love all their family members. Families are there to help and support each other always, through good times and bad. For example, Francisco’s family helped each other when Torito was very sick, Mama would stay home to take care of Papa, and Roberto got a job to help when Papa couldn’t work. Additionally, it is the responsibility of the children to take care of their parents when they get too old to take care of themselves. In the book The Circuit, by Francisco Jimenez, even though Francisco’s family is going through a hard time they support and help each other. Francisco’s family helped each other when Torito was very sick. Mama and Papa would go to the hospital every day to see if Torito was getting better. Francisco and his family pray every night for Torito. “After Roberto and I cleaned the dishes, I went outside, behind our tent, and prayed on my knees again.” pg.40 Francisco and his family prayed for a whole year. All they hoped was for Torito to get better. Along with all the praying, and bringing Tortio to the doctor he got better and everything was great. Another time in the book when Francis’s family supported each other is when Mama would stay home to take care of Papa when he hurt his back. Since Papa couldn’t work with a hurt back Mama would take care of him at home. He couldn’t move his back at all. Mama would also take care of Francisco’s younger siblings. “Mama stayed home to take care of Papa, Rora, and Ruben.” pg.113 Mama would help Papa even though she has to take care of Rora and Ruben. Francisco and his whole family would help Papa because he could barely do anything. In addition, Roberto got a job to help when Papa couldn’t work. The principal at Roberto and Francisco’s school helped him find a job. Roberto was a janitor at the school. He would give Papa the money he earned everyday. ‘Roberto then handed Papa the money he had earned that day. “I am useless; I can’t work; I can’t feed my family; I can’t even protect you from la migra.”’ Roberto helped Papa when he was going through a hard time with a hurt back. Roberto In The Circuit, by Francisco Jimenez Francisco’s family help and support each other even though they are going through a hard time. Francisco’s family helped each other when Torito was very sick, Mama would stay home to take care of Papa when he hurt his back, Roberto got a job when Papa couldn’t work. All of these problems taught Francisco’s and his family to take care and support each other.

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What Happened When I Let Myself Be Seen

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For many years, I had a habit of compartmentalizing: trying to keep my professional life separate from my personal life; trying to keep my actual life out of my writing. I smiled on Instagram and chatted warmly with the neighbors, putting on a brave face even when my home life was falling apart.

Like Clark Kent entering a phone booth in glasses and a suit, then exiting in spandex and a cape, I became adept at the quick change. Sometimes, I was mom-me, daughter-me, friend-me, or neighbor-me. Other times, I was author-me, teacher-me, or editor-me. None of my selves were superheroes, but all of them were strong and capable. A few of them soared.

I think we all hold some of ourselves back, depending on the circumstances, but all of this compartmentalization came at a cost. It left me feeling fragmented and a little lonely: How many people in my life knew all of me? It also left me feeling less than honest—and exhausted. Trying to present only a part of who you are is a lot of emotional labor, assessing each environment and situation, choosing the pieces of yourself to share and the pieces to keep to yourself.

But last year I published a revealing memoir about the end of my marriage and the beginning of a new life. I was 46 years old, solo parenting two children, ages 10 and 14. The new life was precarious and full of unknowns, but it was mine . All of it.

Writing something so personal was a deeply contextualizing experience, like unfolding a large map of my life on a table in front of me. Looking at the whole story helped me see the ways these different parts of my life are connected. My own upbringing, my marriage, my relationships with my kids, my relationships with my parents…all of these things came into contact with my work, my friendships, and my sense of self. Everything touches.

You don’t need to write a memoir to unfold the map and see the ways different pieces of your life border or overlap. You don’t need to publicly share intimate details about your life to better integrate yourself, to be less splintered. But I learned something from writing a memoir so you don’t have to: Being yourself is a way of telling the truth. And, like telling the truth, being your whole self is not always easy, but it’s simple.

I’m a realist, though. I know that fragmentation is often about survival, and sometimes we sense when can’t safely show up as our whole selves. Maybe you have family or friends who aren’t open to your religious or political beliefs. Maybe you’re wary of revealing too much about your personal life at work, in case it might hold you back. I’m not advocating for oversharing. Your coworkers don’t need to know the intimate details of your life, but you can show them who you are and what’s important to you. Your family doesn’t need to understand every aspect of your professional life, but they should know your work, whatever it is, matters.

.css-meat1u:before{margin-bottom:1.2rem;height:2.25rem;content:'“';display:block;font-size:4.375rem;line-height:1.1;font-family:Juana,Juana-weight300-roboto,Juana-weight300-local,Georgia,Times,Serif;font-weight:300;} .css-mn32pc{font-family:Juana,Juana-weight300-upcase-roboto,Juana-weight300-upcase-local,Georgia,Times,Serif;font-size:1.625rem;font-weight:300;letter-spacing:0.0075rem;line-height:1.2;margin:0rem;text-transform:uppercase;}@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-mn32pc{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-mn32pc{font-size:2.375rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-mn32pc{font-size:2.75rem;line-height:1;}}.css-mn32pc b,.css-mn32pc strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-mn32pc em,.css-mn32pc i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;} The me who wanted to lean into my professional life was someone I had a hard time being openly, as a devoted mother.

I also know “the deal” we are asked to buy into, time and time again, as women: We are conditioned to be caregivers, and too often that translates to martyrdom. We are seen as good, even “best,” when we put others first. One of the aspects of my memoir that I was nervous about sharing had nothing to do with my relationship with my now ex-husband, it had to do with my relationship with ambition. The me who wanted to lean into my professional life was someone I had a hard time being openly, as a devoted mother. Articulating that tension and sharing it helped me lean into it. When women reject the idea that we must fragment ourselves—and be quieter, less “needy,” less ambitious—to make others feel bigger and more secure, we take our power back.

It's empowering to be more of yourself, not less. The people you want to attract will show up.

The people you aren’t in alignment with will naturally fall away.

I’ve been thinking about the people I can be my whole self with, and what it is about them that makes me trust them. They listen more than they talk. They don’t judge me or saddle me with unsolicited advice. They want more for me than I sometimes think is possible. They counter my inner critic.

I want to do this for others, to create an atmosphere in which the people in my life can show up whole. Listen, accept, share. We can all do more of this, can’t we? If we want to move through the world with integrity, we can start by showing up as our authentic selves—our whole, perfectly imperfect selves—no matter where we are. No one else can do that work for you, and it takes vulnerability and courage. But the thing I’ve learned about vulnerability and courage is that they’re contagious: When one person is brave and open, it inspires and encourages others to be brave and open, too.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful, by Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, Goldenrod, Keep Moving, My Thoughts Have Wings, and several other books. Smith’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, TIME, and The Best American Poetry.   

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Ashley Graham: The Words I Use to Encourage Self-Love

I was 9 years old when I was first confronted with the idea of beauty . I’d always been a larger kid—stout, athletic. People would tell me I was “big and strong.” But this girl, a stranger I saw one day at Target—she was different. She had long, thin legs, a flat tummy, and grown-up breasts. Her blonde hair fell perfectly down her shoulders. I was so young, and yet I knew: she was pretty . I wanted to be that. I didn’t know what modeling was back then—I didn’t even know what fashion was—but I wanted what she had. I wanted to command attention.

My story began like so many women’s, as my sense of self evolved under the influence of feedback from others . In middle school the kids called me “cottage cheese thighs.” I craved acceptance of others and the empathy of a friend group that might understand what I had to offer beyond my exterior.

And then, suddenly, I was a model. A scout spotted me at the mall in Omaha when I was 12. Soon I was being paid to have my picture taken. Adults were telling me that my looks had value.

It came with a caveat, though. I was “big pretty” or “pretty for a big girl” or “pretty from the neck up.” There was always that double label: pretty and plus-sized . In school, the plus-size wasn’t cool, but the pretty was interesting. My teachers would tilt their heads and squint at me, looking for whatever the industry saw. I would fly to modeling jobs in New York City over the weekend with my mom, and be back in school facing the name-calling on Monday. I wish I’d had a mentor back then—someone to help me understand my value and my purpose as a model. But there was no one I could look to and emulate, no one who’d gone through the same challenges to hold my hand and tell me that none of the noise mattered, that I just needed to keep moving forward.

Read More: The 5 Words That Help Me Accept My Body

Developing my confidence in my own beauty came later—and it’s something I still struggle with sometimes. There isn’t one top model who doesn’t live with some sort of insecurity. You could talk to any of them, and I bet they would tell you all about it. We’re constantly being picked apart, constantly being told what’s right with how we look and what’s wrong, how we aren’t meeting the bar, what we need to change about ourselves. It’s enough to make anyone want to give up, and I almost did once, early on. I was 18 years old, living in Manhattan under tremendous pressure to build a new kind of career in a hyper-competitive city with skyrocketing rent. And it was complicated to be a plus-size model at a younger age, because there was even more scrutiny on the messaging—there was a negative connotation that came with youth and obesity and what it might mean to promote body diversity . I felt like I had to work twice as hard as everyone else because I was different. One day I finally called my mom crying, looking in the mirror and just feeling like I couldn’t do it anymore. She told me something I’ll never forget: your body is going to change someone’s life. You have to keep going.

That was the “aha” moment for me. My mom helped me understand my purpose. As I let her words sink in, I thought about how for years I’d let other people tell me who I was. I needed to define my worth for myself. And I could use words, like my mom had, to do it.

Affirmations are a trendy concept now, but back then I’d never heard of them. I literally searched “better words for self,” and I discovered that this was a tool that had helped other people. I could come up with my own personal phrases to use to speak directly to my insecurities. This is what I landed on: I am bold. I am brilliant. I am beautiful. Bold because I’d always been told I was too much—too big, too loud, too much personality—but I knew that my intensity and presence is what would set me apart. Brilliant because I was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia in the fourth grade and never had the resources I needed to really thrive in school—but I knew that I was smart and capable. Beautiful because I was starting to learn the fuller definition of the word, that beauty is about so much more than the parts of myself that were commoditized.

I used that affirmation for more than a decade as a tool to develop my self-love. Now I know I’m bold, brilliant, and beautiful, and I’ve moved on to other words. That doesn’t mean I don’t still suffer from waves of imposter syndrome or have hard days though. My body has changed things for other people, and there’s an incredible honor—and an incredible pressure—that comes with knowing that. I’ve always wanted women to see themselves in me, to know that any validation I get is equally theirs. But sharing my body with the world has also meant that the people I’ve set out to represent sometimes assume an ownership over my appearance. We all change . I was 28 when I appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit . Now I’m 36 and a mother of three. My body looked different when I was pregnant, and it looks different now that I’ve given birth to my three sons. Losing weight after having kids has brought on comments from people who feel betrayed by the changes they see. I never want women to think I’m leaving them behind, and at the same time, all I can do is accept the journey I’m on and to focus on the things that make me feel strong and empowered—which is all any of us can do. Maybe I’ll lose weight, maybe I’ll gain it. This is my body, and I’m incredibly proud of everything it has accomplished.

That’s what beauty is. It’s knowing who you are, for better or worse, and loving yourself anyway. It’s learning and exploring and forgiving ourselves for the ways in which we differ. It’s grace.

Ashley Graham is a model, activist, author, and a member of the 2017 TIME100 . Her latest book is A Kids Book About Beauty .

—As told to Lucy Feldman

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I Reread a Book That Changed My Life, but I’d Changed, Too

By Margaret Renkl

Ms. Renkl is a contributing Opinion writer who covers flora, fauna, politics and culture in the American South.

On the day of the eclipse back in April, walking through Boston Common on a fine spring afternoon as every expectant face turned upward, I thought again of Annie Dillard’s wondrously dislocating essay “ Total Eclipse ,” which I have reread more times than I can count. “My hands were silver,” she wrote. “All the distant hills’ grasses were finespun metal that the wind laid down.”

Then I read “ This Is How a Robin Drinks: Essays on Urban Nature ,” the forthcoming book by the Nashville naturalist Joanna Brichetto, which begins with an epigraph from “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” the book that won Ms. Dillard a Pulitzer Prize when she was 29 years old: “Some unwonted, taught pride diverts us from our original intent, which is to explore the neighborhood, view the landscape, to discover at least where it is that we have been so startlingly set down, if we can’t learn why.”

And then, as if I were a dullard the universe can’t trust to take a hint, the writer Jennifer Justice mentioned in her wonderful Substack newsletter that 2024 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” a book that changed me when I was 18 as thoroughly as the eclipse changed Annie Dillard.

On the same day, if you can believe it, the novelist Barbara Kingsolver singled out “Tinker Creek” in an Earth Day recollection for The Washington Post : “Her writing helped me see nature not as a collection of things to know or possess, but a world of conjoined lives, holy and complete, with or without me.”

Clearly it was time to read “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” again. I first read it in 1980, gobbling up the full book after a section of it appeared in my composition textbook. I’ve been afraid to reread it ever since. When you emerge from a book entirely changed, there’s almost no chance the same transfiguration will happen again.

To reread a beloved book after a long time away is always a great risk. If it falls flat on second reading, a feeling of grief descends, as though you’d lost a beloved human and not simply a specific arrangement of words that once mattered to you for some reason you may no longer remember. To lose a book in this way feels of a kind with losing a friend.

But for a book that is more than merely a favorite, a book that has had a hand in creating you, the risk of loss is even greater. A book that is saying exactly what you desperately need to hear at a time when nothing else in your own plodding life is saying it, a book in which somehow, miraculously, every word is arranged as though to pierce your deepest heart and lodge itself there, living and whole — if you were to lose that book, you would feel that you had lost some necessary part of yourself. Or perhaps you would still have it, but it would become a phantom limb, no longer serving you except as a source of pain.

For most of my life I was an indefatigable rereader. During my decade as a high school teacher, I reread so many poems and so many lines from Shakespeare’s plays that I committed many of them to memory. I spent my summers rereading the novels I had assigned my future students to read before they arrived.

And one of the sweetest parts of parenthood was sharing treasured childhood books with my sons. Reading to them, I remembered the little girl I was, sometimes welling over with feelings too big to express, who would close the door to her room and read the ending of “Charlotte’s Web” again. The tears and the words rushed together to create a comfort I understand now in a way I could not when I was 8. Grief eases just a little when the words match the feelings, and tears are a kind of relief in any case. It is a gift when body, soul and language are of a piece for once.

Part of the pleasure of rereading a dear old book is the chance to remember who I was when I first read it and to take my own measure by standing inside its light once more. But my time for reading is rarely a matter of my own straightforward choice anymore. I read because I need to learn, or because I am eager to support the work of other writers, and I am a slow, slow reader. As the years march on, it feels almost wasteful to reread a favorite when there are so many books that I have not yet read at all. The teetering piles torment me.

The poet Camille T. Dungy reread “Tinker Creek” in 2020, as she was beginning to write “ Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden ,” a book so beautiful and moving that it is arguably Ms. Dungy’s own “Tinker Creek.” Rereading the classic text brought home to her again the sublimity of Ms. Dillard’s language, but it also raised some questions for her about the writer’s separation from the human world, her utter disengagement from the urgent issues of her day.

“Have you read it recently?” Ms. Dungy asks a colleague who declares her own love for “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” “You might want to.” The world has turned since 1974.

The second time around, “Tinker Creek” raised some of the same issues for me. Reading it as a 62-year-old, it turns out, is entirely different from reading it as a language-besotted college student just learning that writing like Annie Dillard’s could exist in living time, as indelible as any line by Shakespeare or Keats or Dickinson.

The features of the book that make me cast a sideways glance today — the specific circumstances of privilege, or just the good luck, that make it possible for a young woman to feel confident wandering alone in even a suburb-skirting woodland, for instance — ought to have made me cast a sideways glance in 1980, too, though they did not. I was also a young woman who knew so little of the human world that I still felt safe walking alone in the wild one.

By 1992, Ms. Dillard was dismissing her own early work as “ little, little, little books ,” but they are still magnificent to me. Rereading “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” this spring, it was a relief to react to it in much the same way I reacted as a teenager. Reading it again, I am once more intoxicated with language, once more swept away by the violent, intertwined, unaccountable beauty of nature, deeply in love with the whole profligate living world. Reading it again, I am the girl I was then and the woman I am now. Both at once.

Margaret Renkl , a contributing Opinion writer, is the author of the books “ The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, ” “ Graceland, at Last ” and “ Late Migrations .”

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A charming look at a reader’s many moods

Elisa Gabbert’s essays in “Any Person Is the Only Self” are brimming with pleasure and curiosity about a life with books.

Tell people you read and write for a living, and they picture a ghostly creature, an idea only incidentally appended to a body. What they often fail to understand is that the life of the mind is also a physical life — a life spent lugging irksomely heavy volumes around on the Metro and annotating their margins with a cramping hand. The poet, essayist and New York Times poetry columnist Elisa Gabbert is rare in grasping that reading is, in addition to a mental exercise, a movement performed in a particular place.

“If I remember anything about a book, I also remember where I read it — what room, what chair,” she writes in her charming new essay collection, “ Any Person Is the Only Self .” Writing, too, proves spatial: “I think essays, like buildings, need structure and mood. The first paragraph should function as a foyer or an antechamber, bringing you into the mood.”

The 16 delightfully digressive pieces in this collection are all moods that involve books in one way or another. But they are not just about the content of books, although they are about that, too: They are primarily about the acts of reading and writing, which are as much social and corporeal as cerebral.

In the first essay — the foyer — Gabbert writes about the shelf of newly returned books at her local library. “The books on that shelf weren’t being marketed to me,” she writes. “They weren’t omnipresent in my social media feeds. They were very often old and very often ugly. I came to think of that shelf as an escape from hype.” The haphazard selections on the shelf were also evidence of other people — the sort of invisible but palpable community of readers that she came to miss so sharply during the pandemic.

In another essay, she learns of a previously unpublished story by one of her favorite authors, Sylvia Plath, who makes frequent appearances throughout this book. Fearing that the story will disappoint her, Gabbert puts off reading it. As she waits, she grows “apprehensive, even frightened.”

There are writers who attempt to excise themselves from their writing, to foster an illusion of objectivity; thankfully, Gabbert is not one of them. On the contrary, her writing is full of intimacies, and her book is a work of embodied and experiential criticism, a record of its author’s shifting relationships with the literature that defines her life. In one piece, she rereads and reappraises books she first read as a teenager; in another, she and her friends form a “Stupid Classics Book Club,” to tackle “all the corny stuff from the canon that we really should have read in school but never had.”

Gabbert is a master of mood, not polemic, and accordingly, her writing is not didactic; her essays revolve around images and recollections rather than arguments. In place of the analytic pleasures of a robustly defended thesis, we find the fresh thrills of a poet’s perfected phrases and startling observations. “Parties are about the collective gaze, the ability to be seen from all angles, panoramically,” she writes in an essay about fictional depictions of parties. She describes the photos in a book by Rachael Ray documenting home-cooked meals — one of the volumes on the recently returned shelf — as “poignantly mediocre.” Remarking on a listicle of “Books to Read by Living Women (Instead of These 10 by Dead Men),” Gabbert wonders, “Since when is it poor form to die?”

“Any Person Is the Only Self” is both funny and serious, a winning melee of high and low cultural references, as packed with unexpected treasures as a crowded antique shop. An academic text on architecture, the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, a rare memory disorder whose victims recall every aspect of their autobiographies in excruciatingly minute detail, “Madame Bovary,” YouTube videos about people who work as professional cuddlers, a psychological study about whether it is possible to be sane in an insane asylum — all these feature in Gabbert’s exuberant essays. She is a fiercely democratic thinker, incapable of snobbery and brimming with curiosity.

Perhaps because she is so indefatigably interested, she gravitates toward writers who see literature as a means of doubling life, allowing it to hold twice as much. Plath confessed in her journals that she wrote in an attempt to extend her biography beyond its biological terminus: “My life, I feel, will not be lived until there are books and stories which relive it perpetually in time.” The very act of keeping a diary, then, splits the self in two.

Plath once insisted that bad things could never happen to her and her peers because “we’re different.” Gabbert asks “Different why?” and concludes that everyone is different: “We are we , not them. Any person is the only self.” But that “only” is, perhaps counterintuitively, not constrained or constricted. Walt Whitman famously wrote that his only self comprised “multitudes,” and Gabbert echoes him when she reflects, “If there is no one self, you can never be yourself, only one of your selves.” And indeed, she is loath to elevate any of her many selves over any of the others. When she rereads a book that she loved in her adolescence, she thinks she was right to love it back then. “That self only knew what she knew,” she writes. “That self wasn’t wrong .” Both her past self and her present self have an equal claim to being Elisa Gabbert, who is too fascinated by the world’s manifold riches to confine herself to a single, limited life.

Becca Rothfeld is the nonfiction book critic for The Washington Post and the author of “All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess.”

Any Person Is the Only Self

By Elisa Gabbert

FSG Originals. 230 pp. $18, paperback.

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