Throughout … And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, Rivera emphasizes the importance of education as a means to a better life, a bedrock principle of so many American dreams. Though "Hand in His Pocket" is not exclusively about education, the reason the protagonist is staying with the fiendish Don Laíto and Doña Bone for three weeks is to finish the school year. The narrator says, "All that my parents wanted was for me to finish school so I could find me some job that wasn't so hard."
The fourth vignette of the book focuses exclusively on school in similar terms. In a dialogue between two young Latinos, one asks the other the reason for his or her regular attendance at school. The reply underscores education as an opening: "My Dad says it's to.....
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