Four Skinny Trees, One Skinny Girl

           In "Four Skinny Trees", the speaker uses an extended metaphor comparing herself to flimsy trees to prove the theme that everyone has someone or something to help them. The speaker, known as Esparanza, states, "Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine." She used a simile in that statement, which is just a variation of a metaphor. She is clearly comparing herself to the trees, and this continus through the poem, helping her. Later in the play, Esperanza says, "When I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at the trees." The trees are the only things that can help her, but there is something that can help her. She's comparing herself to the trees, so she is saying that she can understand and help herself. This develops the theme that everyone has someone or something for them, even if it is themselves, represented by four skinny trees.