Question

1 how the day after graduating as valedictorian from the high school in the rio grande valley you helped your family board up the door and windows of the frame house and packed the old pickup truck to make your annual trek north. after three days on the road arriving at the turkey farm and being led to your quarters. the family, tired, looks to you. \whats this?\ you ask, for you, the favored son, speak english, you can communicate with the bosses.
\this is where youre gonna live.\
perplexed, you say, \but it looks like a chicken coop.\
\it is, but its not good enough for the chickens,\ the anglo responds with a sneer.
2 and you take it, and you suffer as your mother and your sisters make the best of the chicken coop. they hang curtains and sweep the floor and burn candles to the virgen.
3 then the work, arduous and demeaning, begins. working night shifts after long days... plucking feathers, forcibly breeding the toms and the hens, and your dad ages from the day - to - day before your very eyes.
4 until one day youve been working hard, and you look for your dad, and barely see his head in one of the buried barrels full of feathers, working away. suddenly hes gone, and you think youre imagining things: how could he disappear? and you remove your gloves and risk the foremans wrath. you run to your father; jump in; he is almost smothered by feathers, and you say, \enough!\ you take control and pack family off.
o pay for all your w
how does the theme of \the exploitation of migrant labor\ develop in the excerpt? (r.2)
a it is introduced through the narrators valedictorian status, highlighting the contrast between his potential and his circumstances.
b it is primarily conveyed through the familys initial exhaustion and their reliance on the narrator to communicate.
c it is established through the dehumanizing living conditions, the arduous and demeaning work, the threat of withheld wages, and the bosses reluctant compliance with labor laws.
d it culminates in the mothers pride and fear, illustrating the precariousness of their improved situation.

Explanation:

• Option A: The valedictorian status highlights potential vs. circumstances, but this is more about the narrator's individual situation, not the broader theme of migrant labor exploitation.
• Option B: Family exhaustion and reliance on the narrator for communication do not directly convey exploitation; they show family dynamics and language barriers.
• Option C: The excerpt describes living in a place "not good enough for the chickens" (dehumanizing living conditions), "arduous and demeaning work" like plucking feathers and forced breeding, the threat of withheld wages ("No pay for all your work"), and the bosses' reluctant compliance with labor laws (implied by their unfair treatment). These elements collectively establish the exploitation of migrant labor.
• Option D: The mother’s pride and fear, and the precariousness of an improved situation, do not relate to the development of the exploitation theme.

Answer:

C. It is established through the dehumanizing living conditions, the arduous and demeaning work, the threat of withheld wages, and the bosses’ reluctant compliance with labor laws.