Jumping Off For Freedom Essay, Research Paper

In the Search for Liberty

Being a Cuban must be a terrible thing, not for the fact of being from Cuba but because of the type of government Cuba has, the government of Cuba is very extrict and sometimes very mean. Cuba is a beautiful country, but they do not have liberty there, Cubans can not leave the country, so some of the citizens do not have other resources that to join other thousands of Cubans that make rafts and go into the sea hoping to reach the coast of Florida for relieves and a new life. The story Jumping off for Freedom written by Anilú Bernardo lets the reader knows how a Cuban family goes through just to get the liberty. The author easily expresses her outstanding style of writing by the plot, the conflicts and the setting.

To begin with, the book or the story is about a fifteen year old man name David Leal that with his family had not other choice but to make a raft and search for freedom, David, Miguel (David’s father) and Luis (helped making the raft) were the only ones supposed to get on the raft, but while aborting the raft ‘El Toro’ (Luis’ friend) with the help of Luis got on the raft as well, he was rude, he never had a smile of approbation, David and his dad had to keep up with his bad jokes, and bombastic comments, he also made inveigh comments to the Leals. David and Miguel were disappointed because he was not supposed to be on the raft, since he did not have the prerogative to be on it and they only had food and water for three persons. They were also scared of the see because they were callow, they did not know much about rafts or the ocean, but they ameliorated later, they learned from their own experience.

The author easily express her great form of writing and also share it with the reader through the plot, the plot is the sequence of events in a literary work, in this case Jumping off for Freedom, Arilu Bernardor wrote the book in such way that it makes the reader like what he or she is reading and also makes it easy to follow.

The exposition introduces the setting and the character, the reader notice this at the very beginning of the book, for example, when Elena, David’s girlfriend, told Rosa and Miguel, David’s parents that David has been arrested by the police, the reader has been introduced to three characters and one conflict as well.

The raising action will follow, this is when the central conflict is introduced, by chapter 5 you have been introduced to at least three conflicts, like when David was arrested, the second one was when Luis told ‘El Toro’ that they were going to leave the country and head to Florida and the third conflict will happen when they are in the raft because ‘El Toro’ was not suppose to leave with them and they did not get along that well, of course there were more that three conflicts but these are three of the most important.

The climax will follow the rising action, the climax is when the reader meet the highest point of interest, the climax of Jumping off for Freedom is when the four members of the raft are in the middle of the sea, they were kind of lost so their only resource was praying God. The reader will meet with the falling action when they finally saw land and of course this will tied the resolution, when they arrived safely to land and got a chance to talk with their families and assuage their feelings since they really missed their families, and their families were really worried about them, and that will be the end of the book.

Another good feature that Jumping off for Freedom contains are the conflicts, as the one already knows, conflict is the struggle between opposing forces, while reading this story the reader will find a lot of stories, basically the entire book is a conflict, without the conflicts this book would have been a boring book, the first conflict starts when David get arrested by the Cuban police because he let Pepe, a friend of David, used his back and apparently he killed a cow, in Cuba a cow is government property, and if someone destroy that property they are infringing the law. Since they found the bike near by where the incident happened, they arrested David and this inspired David’s family to take off to Florida.

Other conflicts will happen later in the raft, this is one of the features that made the book unique, ‘El Toro’ was always messing with the Leal family, he was always saying rude comments and jokes that were not so nice, he always kept saying that they were not going to make to Florida, but the Leal family had a lot of patience and kept up with him until they got to the United States’ coast.

Most of these conflicts were human Vs human, but that was not it they had to face with another obstacle, human Vs nature, while on the raft they were in dangers of sharks, the sun was also an obstacle. Since all of the members were sun burned, they felt jaded, but they made it through that obstacle. They also faced with storms and they almost lost their lives.

Finally the last characteristic that makes this book so unique is the setting; the setting is the time and place that scene of the story take place. In Jumping off for Freedom the author explains really well where the story takes place, for example the author says “The next morning David and his family after seeing the beautiful sun and the birds flying by through the window they decided to go to Luis’ house”, after the reader read this he or she will figure out that the day is shiny.

Also after David, Luis, Miguel, and ‘El Toro’ took off to Florida Anilu Bernardo, the author of Jumping off for Freedom, explains with detail the setting, that way the readers knows and feels what they four members of the raft goes through, for example while reading the book the reader knows that the weather in the sea is not a good help for the crew. Also while reading the last part you know the weather was favoring them and that help them to reach Florida.

In conclusion Jumping off for Freedom, is a very unique, interesting book to read, it takes the reader’s imagination through what a Cuban family lives through when they made the decision of leaving the country in search of liberty. The author, Anilu Bernardo, is a meritorious and very smart lady, Bernardo found a new life in South Florida in 1961, when her family escaped the Communists take over of their land, she now lives in Plantation with her husband and her daughters, Stephanie and Amanda. Anilu Bernardo writes from the heart. Jumping off for Freedom is a moving, sensitive and informative novel, told with clarity and compassion. She also shows her intelligence and great style of writing through the plot, the conflicts and finally the setting. She knows what it feels because she went through what the Leal family went through, There are now thousands of Cubans who leave the country yearly just looking for freedom, some Cubans die in the ocean while sealing to South Florida.