Four skinny trees - Alonzo Smith

Alonzo Smith

In the short story, Four Skinny Trees, through an extended metaphor the speaker compares themselves to trees that symbolize weakness and friability. Esperanza expresses the theme of friability by showing the connection of adversity through her connection to the trees, stating the skinniness of the trees and lack of beauty in the trees. This metaphor shows that the speaker can't find the strength to go on, but always manages to, just like the trees. Esperanza shows how of the trees such as how they have a weak, frail side, like her “…grew despite concrete”, “…do not forget to reach”, and “do not belong here but are still here” supports the statement that the theme of “Four Skinny Trees” is a metaphor for weakness. This statement indicates that the four trees weak-mindedness in the city is weird and they don’t know how, but still continue to grow and survive. Showing through surviving in a place where one does not belong zooms in on the emotion that the speaker shows.