Blog Entry #11 - Literary Focus of "Gentleman of Rio en Medio"

6.  Infer Why doesn't Don Anselmo reveal who "owns" the trees on his first visit to the lawyer's office? Was he being clever, or was he unaware of the potential problem? Explain.

       

        I assume Don Anselmo was unaware of the potential problem when he didn’t reveal who “owned” the trees on his first visit to the lawyer’s office basically because of his background.

First of all, he is and old Spanish man who lives a simple life in the mountains, and “He also wore gloves. They were old and torn and his fingertips showed through them. He carried a cane, but it was only the skeleton of a worn-out umbrella.” (P. 299) shows that he perhaps does manual labor and lives an ordinary, inadequate but nature-living life style. 

It proves that he takes things easy and may be his knowledge is limited, in which it put him in a situation where he can’t picture the consequence of not telling about the trees. 

Additionally, probably due to the Spanish traditions, he considered the trees his descendants’ property and therefore could not sell them. Part of it is true, but in business, things have to be clear and usually should not be affected by emotional statements.  

 But, if he was to take advantage of the problem and ask for more money, he could have accepted to receive all of the money in the first play. 

Money???

Unaware of The Potential Problem???