Lupita Mañana is a parable. Parables are among the most unique of stories because their purpose is to question or attack commonly held beliefs and ideas. Beatty uses Lupita Mañana to attack the literary myth that one can overcome life’s greatest obstacles by oneself through personal resilience, hard work, and a little bit of luck.

To grasp what Beatty is doing, it helps to know that she is writing a response to a young adult novel from the early 20th century: Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter. Porter’s book, also named for the main character, follows a very similar storyline: A young orphan girl moves to a distant place to live with her mother’s sister who does not want her but feels obligated to care for her. The girl’s presence ultimately changes the lives of everyone in the town. Taking a step farther back, Pollyanna itself is really a response to a series of books for young boys written around the end of the 19th century by Horatio Alger. The plot to every one of Alger’s books was the same: An orphaned boy of high moral character did a good deed for a wealthy family and was rewarded with a new, privileged life.