Mercedez Benz by Rosario Ferre

Mercedes Benz 220 SL by Rosario Ferre is a short story about self involved parents, Ellie and Ralph, and their son Fernando and his wife Maria. Ralph and Ellie go for a ride in their Mercedes a Sunday morning with a heavy downpour of rain going on. Ralph was going pretty fast, about 90m/h, and hits a man. A woman comes and tends to the man, but they don’t get out of their cars. Ralph writes “Contact us if we can be of help� and their address on a note and leaves. The lady goes to their house a few days later and is greeted by Ellie. Ralph was at work. The lady tells her that the man is dead and she had buried him, then she leaves. What Ellie and Ralph don’t know is that the dead man is their son Fernando and the woman is his wife.
This story was very shocking and disturbing. At first I didn’t understand who was tal

This is a story that I can relate to people in general, no matter the year. Some people blind themselves into believing what they want to believe. They don’t care who is getting hurt physically or emotionally. All that matters is that they are ok. After they hit Fernando Ellie starts thanking God, that they were safe. She connects their safety with the car and money. As if saying that if you are not rich enough to buy a Mercedes one is not safe. She doesn’t even pray for the safety of the poor man they just hit. “Thank you, oh God, for the protection, for the security, for the wonderful armor of a car around us, God forgive us and the Virgin protects us, one cant live without money”. We can also see the difficulty of being alone and letting go in Maria, like in Emily (From A Rose For Emily). Another thing we can see