“The silence and the barn and the clouds meant many things. It was always a question of work, and work depended on the harvest, the car running, their health, the conditions of the road, how long the money held out, and the weather, which meant they could depend on nothing.”

The idea of “dependency” in this passage introduces the broader theme of unstable and marginal lives. For Estrella and her family, both the availability of work and their own ability to complete it is as unpredictable as the weather (and is in fact influenced by the weather, since they work in agriculture); if any one thing goes wrong, the family will be out of money. In other words, there is no external support system for the family to rely on, so the central question of the novel becomes what the family can rely on in the absence of things like guaranteed income and medical care. The idea of “the silence and the barn and the clouds meaning many things” also suggests the important role that symbolism will play in the novel; on the face of it, Estrella is simply scanning her surroundings for hints as to the prospects for work, but at the same time, Viramontes is asking readers to look beyond the everyday for more metaphorical meanings.